The Prophecy of the Wolf Pack
by RedHairedOctavia
Summary: Whitebeard Wolf Pack Part 2: Forced apart by various forces in the world, the Wolf Pack take on the world one enemy at a times, as their prophecy had once predicted. Octavia faces the very depths of her fears as she's forced back into the light as the Whitebeard Princess and also wearing a Straw Hat? [OC, Luffy, Sabo, Ace, Whitebeard Pirates, Straw Hats]
1. Forced Return

_**Hello Lovelies! Guess whose back!**_

 _ **Thank you for all the messages of support and the threats to come back or else! lol - but to be honest I lose the will to write this story for a very long time - but it is slowly coming back! I hope that I haven't lost too much of my already novice writing skills... eep**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

 _'If I fall, I will get back up; If I am beaten, I will return!'_

Many years had passed since the last time she had seen her brothers, or her hoard of guardians that she had once called her family. It had been so long since she had last heard their voices or the sounds of their laughter flooding around her and it was beginning to get to her. She missed the banter and the fights over the last piece of meat at the table after any meal, the arguments of whose bed they would fall into that night, or even who was going to take the first shower. Those were the little things that made her feel a part of something, like she belonged in this world.

There was nothing worse in this world than being alone, or so she had once thought.

The expected few months away from the Moby Dick, the place she once called her home, turned into something much longer, Thatch had worked the hardest he had ever in his life to recover from the attack on his body. There were so many ups and downs between all of them she had no idea how they had managed to all stay alive and happy with each other but they did.

She couldn't remember the number of times Ghost would rescue her from the various schools or study sessions that her two guardians had forced upon her. Making sure she caught of up on all the knowledge that she had missed growing up. Ghost became her best friend on that island, he was her everything. They trained together, slept together and simply just sat together watching the ocean from their special spot as they reminisced on the good old days together and dreamt of the future they would all have together.

She missed her life back then both on the Moby and on the island, it was simple and perfect. She had the three greatest brothers anyone could ever ask for, a set of overbearingly loving guardians who loved her unconditionally and a father who gave her the confidence to be whatever or whoever she wanted to be, together they gave her the feeling of safety and love that no one else had managed to counter. They gave her the strength to fight back even when all the odds were against her.

But that was the past.

She could never go back.

Not after what happened.

Not after what she did.

Every night she stayed up late at night, staring at the rotting wood above her bed, she resisted the urge to reach over into her pack in search for the single tone dial her brother's had given her as their final present to her all those years ago. She used to listen to their voices once as a source of encouragement and acceptance, but now, it was a lasting source of pain and regret for her. Their wishes and dreams of meeting again in the future and their excitement in seeing how far each of them could push their training was long forgotten.

Their original voyage for Thatch's recovery was meant to only be a year at most, that would be enough time for him to at least gain enough knowledge and strength to then continue his rehabilitation at home, or gain enough information to take for Lia to be able to interoperate and treat on the ship, but those twelve months that were spoken of, dissolved into years.

Thatch had recovered to almost his full self again thanks to the brilliance of the egotistical doctor of their home away from home island. It was hard for all of them during those eighteen months of rehab and constant surgeries, but he was alive and safe. And better yet, he was walking and running and even keeping up with his sparing with Lyon. Things were going great for them.

Were - going great for them.

She wondered where her brothers were now; Luffy would have left for his own adventure by now and starting to cause trouble wherever he goes. A smile formed on her lips imagining her dark haired brother running amuck through every village in search of meat. She missed his goofy smile and infectious laugh.

Sabo would be taking over the commander's station, probably taking on the role as Namur's personal shadow learning anything and everything about navigation and fishman karate. She knew he would probably have filled and entire library full of books that he had written of the things he had learnt and saw over the years.

And Ace, well she could see his smug smile as he commanded all the freshman around on the ship. No doubt taking on any marine or bandit that came there way. He was a mini Marco in training, even if he'd never admit it out loud.

She missed all her family to the point that it physically hurt her to think about them anymore. She was on her way back to them when it all happened. If only she had left one day earlier, things would have been different.

 _Stop!_

She forced her mind to flash back into the present as she stared at the semi filled bar in front of her. From the first moment she had entered this washed up bar, she had searched for the perfect table for her to conceal herself from the rest of the drunks in the bar but also to be in site of every exit in the building. The past five years had taught her many things that her somewhat sheltered life could not have prepare her for.

All those years of being with the Whitebeard Pirates had completely eradicated her survival instincts. When she was first rescued her eyes immediately sort out every entrance or exit in a room, she could remember even the minutest detail of a man across the hall and judged his character on mere movements. But now, she had to relearn everything that her harsh childhood had taught her. She continued to look over her shoulder and remember every detail of anyone who got to close, there were too many silver scars over her body to keep her motivated to be on guard.

"Another lass?" a voice asked, slowly she lifted her eyes from beneath her hood and nodded to the kind old man holding up a large jug of rum. Sliding her empty cup across the wooden table he refilled it for her quickly before giving her a small smile and walking off to the next table over. Only once has the old man tried to talk to her in the last two days since she had become a permanent fixture in his pub, but after a quick wave off he kindly left her alone.

She downed the liquid, sighing in content as the signature burn trickled down her throat. It was one of the only things that brought her satisfaction now, its alcoholic powers muffled the pain and memories that bubbled into her sober mind.

Surveying the rowdy room, she caught a glimpse of each of the different men in the bar. Giving them a quick threat analysis she deemed most of them as a low level threat to her. No one gave her second glances, or held their gaze too long in her direction. To them, she was just another girl alone in a bar.

But then her eyes stopped on a cloaked man in the very corner who was by himself, sitting with his back towards her, almost mimicking her on the other end of the room. He picked the second place in the bar that she would have deemed safe enough to sit in; access to all the exits within a few seconds, view of every table in the room and the bartenders and it was probably second to hers to see the staff exit to the kitchen. He was hiding out just like she was, or maybe he was watching, waiting for someone.

What caught her attention mostly though was the tattoo that was scrawled across his fingers. She wanted to see who it was, who would openly make a threat on their body like that? Was he just plain stupid or was he actually a man who could back his promises. Who would openly write the word death along their skin?

"What's a pretty young thing, doing in a place like this?" a slurred voice spoke out, stepping in front of her blocking her view of the mysterious man in the corner. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the lame pick up line. A large, hairy, smelly disgusting man slunk down on the stool opposite her and caused her nose to wrinkle. He slammed down the jug of rum he had on the table and the contents of it slushed over the sides and onto her clean table.

 _Moron, s_ he thought to herself.

"Piss off," she responded, lifting her drink back to her lips and downing the rest of it in one hit. She didn't want to deal with another asshole like him again. There had been too many countless bars, and drunk men who thought that she could be taken advantage off. Her eyes flashed down to her concealed blade and wished that she didn't have to see it coated in blood again. She wished people would just leave her alone and would stop hunting her.

"You've got a feisty little mouth on you don't you," he laughed, leaning his body forwards almost towering over her. She gaged on the smell of his breath alone let alone the rest of him.

"For the last time. Fuck - off." She glared, giving him her last and final warning. She would not ask again.

"How about I make you use that dirty little mouth of yours in another way," the man laughed, and she felt her jaw tighten, her hand moved slowly to rest on the hilt of her blade. The second he made his move he would be dead, or at least without his grubby hand.

"The girl told you to beat it," said a strong deep voice.

Another cloaked man appeared and threw the man off the chair and across the room in an instant. Her first instincts told her it was the old barman, it wouldn't be the first time he stepped in when things went south, but the voice was different.

"Who the fuck do you think you -" her admirers voice went from angry to panicked in all but a few seconds. She sighed already knowing what made the drunkard lose his balls and cower back to wherever he came from. She could hear the scurrying of the oversize buffoon trying to flee as fast as he could.

"You've been hard to find," the owner of the new voice slid into the small booth next to her.

Her hand gripped around the cup tighter almost crushing the ceramic sides. Quickly releasing her hands she made a move to leave. Octavia had thought only this morning that she would have to leave this island soon, it had been three days too long, and now was the exact reason why she needed to leave.

He caught up to her – again.

"It's just me. Stay for a minute Flick," his voice spoke softly, causing her heart to bounce in her chest. Then his rough hand folded over the top of hers and her eyes wavered to look at his hand touching hers. It took everything inside of her not to look up at him, as soon as their eyes connected she knew it would be harder to leave again.

"Don't call me that," she whispered, but stayed still in her spot. She willed herself to drag her hand back to her cup needing something to occupy her hands. She fought with every ounce of strength not to thread her fingers through his strong fingers and hold onto it forever.

"Flick, please talk to me." Thatch said, removing his hood and his piercing eyes bore into the side of her covered face.

"What are you doing here?" she questioned softly.

"I'm here for you Prin-"

"Do not call me that." She snapped.

Octavia's eyes flashed to his in that instant and she felt all the rage that she was holding inside of her rise. That name would never hold the same endearment that it once did, now it was nothing but hatred and disgust. She would rip out the vocal chords of any man who dared call her by that name.

"Octavia," Thatch whispered, placing his warm, safe, hands over hers. "Come home Octavia, come home please."

"I can't," she whispered, lowering her head if only to cover her eyes even further from the man beside her. She wished he had never come here, she wished that he would stop chasing after her.

"Go home Thatch, stop looking for me and forget that I ever existed."

The hands around her squeezed firmly and suddenly she was forced to turn and look at her guardian in the eyes. Her eyes clashed with his dark brown ones in that moment and it seemed like the entire world around them stopped. She wished that it was the truth that they could freeze time and let this moment between them last forever.

"Don't you ever say that Octavia. Don't you dare believe a word that those people said, what happened was not your fault, do you hear me - it was not your fault. It's-"

"It's always theirs," she snapped back, ripping her hand from his, "really Thatch? Don't you dare preach that bullshit line to me; I'm not ten years old anymore. I've see the world for what it really is and what the true meaning of a monster is! So don't just sit there and think for one second that, that bullshit line is going to work on me anymore!" Octavia stood up out of her wooden booth of solitude and stormed back out of the bar.

"Don't you dare run off, don't you disappear on me again!" Thatch yelled, chasing after her.

She picked up her pace and searched for the nearest escape route. This had happened so many times over the last few years that she had lost count. Thatch was always the one who found her though; he was the only one who had seen her since then. Apparently her Uncle and her guardian were teaming up together in order to find her and drag her back with either of them.

She could feel him chasing after her and she found herself searching for an empty alley way. Somewhere she could disappear without anyone seeing her do so. It was her last resort to use her powers, if someone was to see her do it nowadays and report it, she might as well sign off on her own death warrant. Her powers were no longer a secret kept only to the world government, everyone who had eyes to see, knew who she was and what she was capable of.

The bounty on her head was large enough to bring every bounty hunter after her from the pathetic bandits from small towns to the career hunters that took on the toughest pirates in the seas. The only plus she had for her was her looks, no one knew what she looked like now only her powers and a very vague description.

The World Government had yet to get an updated version of her photo for the posters they had spread all over the world, so they were stuck with the same one when she was barely a teenager. She had read in the paper of so many false claims of red haired girls found all over the world and whom were handed in for the prize. She felt bad for those woman, but at least they were thrown back into the world. They were not who the government wanted or needed.

"Pops is dying!" Thatch yelled out.

Octavia stopped in the middle of a crowded street as her eye froze open wide. Hearing those three words was worse than hearing any torment that anyone had ever said to her. Whitebeard was dying, her Papa was dying. She could feel her hands begin to tremble as the world suddenly caught up to her.

"What?" she questioned, feeling Thatch step up behind her.

"He's really sick Flick. He wants to see you before -" Thatch gripped onto her hand and squeezed it. She found her fingers threading through his without a second thought. That was the moment her entire barrier around her came crashing down around her.

"Please come home."

He's dying.

Papa is dying.

Whitebeard is dying.

"I can't go back." Octavia said turning her head slightly to look over her shoulder. Every word she spoke caused a spike of disgust through her heart. There was nothing else in the world she would rather do than to go back home and return to the person they all knew her to be, but that was impossible.

"He's your father. He gave you everything you could want in this world and you're really not going to see him before he dies." Thatch spoke harshly.

"Papa is strong. He won't die."

"You know better than anyone that anyone can die. Don't you dare turn your back on your family, not now!" He screamed at her and she resisted the urge to flinch.

She stood there taking every bit of hatred that flew out of his mouth. It was nothing that she hadn't told herself every day and night. She had turned her back on her family, she had betrayed every single person she had ever cared about in this world. She claimed she was only doing it to keep them safe, but that wasn't the half of it. She was afraid to ever put her family at risk; from that buster call threat back when they were kids or when the marines had boarded the Moby Dick in search of her, but this was different. This threat hanging over all their heads was her fault and it was nothing that anyone of them would be able to face without dying.

"I can't go back." She tried again forcing the words out through her gritted teeth. "It's not safe."

"It's not safe," Thatch's voice whispered back her own fears as his hand tightened around hers, "we will always protect you Flick. I will always protect you." Thatch stepped closer to her and if she had leaned back an inch her back would be pressed against his chest.

"I'm not afraid for myself," she scoffed stepping forwards and away from her old guardian. Her arms wrapped around her chest as she turned side on towards him, "you cannot protect yourselves from me."

"You're an idiot Turtle," he spoke, appearing in front of her. His arms wrapped around her without a moments breath and she was smothered.

"No get away," she gasped, trying to push him away from her.

"I'm not letting you leave us again Sunshine, you're the Whitebeard Princess remember. You're my little sister." He kept one arm wrapped around her waist as the other gentle pulled her head into his chest.

"I can't go back." She screeched, thumping her fists into his chest over and over again. "Don't you get it, I'll kill you. I kill everyone I ever love!" A small sob broke through her defences. His strong arms wrapped around her frame and her face was buried into his chest.

How many years had she managed to avoid these feelings, of love and being wanted? She told herself every night before she fell asleep that this is what she deserved, only loneliness and solitude is right for her and everyone else in her life.

Her hand cupped over her mouth to hold back the force of emotions that she had held back for so long. She had been alone for so long. She couldn't go back. She couldn't put them in that danger again, she couldn't face them.

"I'm here little Turtle, I'm right here." He whispered into her shoulder as his grip grew tighter. He wasn't going to let go of her this time around. He didn't need to say the words but she felt it. She wouldn't escape him this time no matter what she tried.

"I can't go back. It's too late to go back now," she whispered, letting her most terrifying fear surface. In the end that was what she was most scared of, facing her family again. After all this time, did she even have the right to call them her family? To her they will always be that, but would they ever look at her the same. No. The answer was no.

"I'll be right there with you," Thatch whispered, "I go where you go Octavia. Whether it's back to that shitty motel you've been staying at or to the Moby Dick I will be with you."

There was a moment of silence that hung over both their heads as they both read between the lines. Octavia knew that Thatch would never give up chasing her. He was abandoning his entire life to find her and bring her home, and he knew that she would never stop running. Together they would never stop looking over their shoulders for the other. Sighing she stepped out of his arms and used her sleeve of her cloak to wipe away the snot from her nose. Taking a much needed breath she steadied her voice enough to speak forcing her mask back into its place.

"I need to get my things."

Thatch followed after her silently as she walked ahead of him. She was glad he wasn't pushing himself onto her like they did in the past, things had changed and she wasn't like that anymore. She didn't crave the warmth of her guardian to keep away the fear of monsters lurking in the shadows, no, now she was that monster.

She unlocked the door and walked into the run down, one bedroom studio, that she had called her own.

"Flick," Thatch whispered in shock as he stepped into her space.

She ignored the pain in his voice as she moved towards her bed. Kicking up the floorboard she retrieved her small bag and the small pouch of money she had hidden. The door closed to her place and she waited for him to say something. She had never heard her guardian be so quiet in her entire life.

Walking to her wardrobe she pulled out her small amounts of clothes and stuffed them into a duffle bag. That was it - that was all she owned. Turning back she felt herself jolt seeing Thatch sitting on her make shift bed looking at the single picture on the small nightstand. In truth it was a wooden crate that used to hold several bottles of sake, but now it was a piece of her furniture that held her nightly candle that burned away the darkness.

"You kept this?" Thatch spoke finally taking his eyes off the picture and to her. Turning around to distract herself she searched through the knowingly empty draws. The picture was taken so long ago - it was the day of Ace's surprise water party. They were all grouped together with smiles on their faces. Those were the good times.

"Of course I did." She mumbled not sure if she felt angry that he'd assumed otherwise. But she had no right to be angry at him, she had no right about anything now. Of course everyone would believe that she hated them, that she abandoned them all because she didn't care, or anything along those lines.

"Please look at me." Thatch's voice sounded strained as he spoke. "Please Squirt, just look at me."

Slowly she turned around, but she kept her eyes to the ground. She didn't know if she would ever be able to look at him in the eye again. She didn't want to see what he thought of her now. She didn't want to see the shame that would no doubt be there.

"We should go." She pulled the duffle bag over her shoulder and made a move to the door. A wave of raw power filled the room and the hair rose on the back of her neck.

"Would you fucken look at me!" Thatch snapped and she felt her body turn and her defences came up. Her duffle bag was thrown behind her and two blades were in her hands ready to attack. Her eyes bore into his and she saw him for the first time in forever. His clouded eyes softened and she took a small step back. Her heel bumped into her duffle bag reminding her of her belongings. All she needed to do was bend down a fraction and then she could disappear.

There was a reason why she chose a room backing onto a forest. Her eyes instantly locked onto an empty space in the distance of the green sanctuary. All she needed was a fraction of a second and she would be gone.

"I'm sorry-" Thatch stepped forwards and she found herself countering his movements. "I'm sorry I didn't mean - I'd never hurt you Flick, you know that." His voice, pleading to her and she blinked a few times as the rhythm of her heart came back to a steady pace. Her tongue darted out to wet her suddenly dry lips.

"Sorry," she whispered, pushing up out of her crouch, "instincts." She murmured her reasoning's and slid her two blades back into their hilts beneath the leather bounds around her thighs. Dropping her coat back over to conceal her body she moved to recover her face when Thatch told her to stop. She looked back at him as he stared at her.

"Octavia," his face softened into one she remembered from all those years ago. "You changed your hair?" he all but whispered and she fought the urge to react. Out of everything that just happened he mentioned her now black hair. Her red locks were amongst the first things to go from her old self. It's what happened when you were a wanted person, every feature that could blow your cover had to go. Even if it was only mere words describing her features, it was too rare to not be seen as suspicious.

"We should go," she replaced her hood and picked up her duffle bag. She didn't bother locking the door behind her as she walked away from the small bit of sanctuary she had found. Even if it was only for a few weeks, she would remember the four walls and roof that sheltered her, she remembered all of them.

 _'You really think you can beat me,' she laughed bringing up her wooden bow staff to block the incoming attack. A smile was spread over her face as she danced around the small green field. The sun was bearing down on them causing sweat to run down their skin as they flew at each other._

 _'Give it up O' you cannot win against the beast!' a voice spoke too deep for its natural sound as the boy teased her._

 _She grinned seeing her opening and swung her attack down at his feet, it was the perfect attack but she didn't count for his own attack against her. Feeling the wind knocked out of her chest she fell backwards and laid flat on her back with her eyes closed and her breath coming out in short sharp gasps. A laugh burst from her lips and she turned her head to look at the boy lying beside her in the same state as she was._

 _'You're not like most girls are you?' he laughed and she grinned looking back up to the cloudless sky above her, not needing to answer the question he had spoken so many times. No, she was not like most girls. She was definitely different, especially comparing to most of the girls on this island._

 _'You're not like most boys either,' she responded, turning back to look at him when her smile fell._

 _The sweat on his skin turned darker by the second, the small scratches from their spar widened and grew deeper, blood dripped from his eyes and pooled in his mouth. She could hear his voice chocking his own blood as he tried to speak to her._

A scream bubbled its way to her lips and she flung herself forwards. Her hand cupped over her mouth forcing back the screams that followed after her nightmares. Her eyes took in her surrounds and she felt her panic rise in her chest as she felt the room tilt beneath her.

Thatch.

Boat.

Home.

The events from the previous day came flashing back to her and she remembered where she was, and where she was going now.

"Fuck," she groaned, letting her body slump backwards into the bed. Her hands moving to smash the palms of her hands into her eye sockets. It had been forever since she had a nightmare about _him._ Rolling over onto her side she searched for her bag and ripped through the contents until she found what she was looking for. Her hand gripped around the neck of the glass as her teeth tore off the small cork stopped on top. With her last ounce of breath she swallowed the contents of the bottle in one go. Reaching back into her bag she searched for another bottle. Groaning at the absence of the familiar clicking of glass against glass she knew she was empty.

She needed another drink, _hell_ she needed another ten. This was why she always relocated near a bar; bars were opened to near all hours of the day and night. Ripping off the covers she pushed her feet out first and sat up. Her eyes went down to the dark ink that beared her right thigh. Her fingers danced over the ink and flinched ever so slightly at the scars that were concealed beneath the image. She would always see what was beneath the image on her leg, even when no one else could she would always remember how it got there, and who gave them to her.

Pushing away her dark thoughts she moved about her small cabin and grabbed the dark silk robe that was conveniently placed over the wardrobe door. She was surprised to see a full wardrobe, especially filled with female clothing. At first she questioned Thatch's love life, but then again, she knew him. He said so himself on countless occasions he would never stop looking for her, he would stop at nothing to bring her home.

Throwing her hands through the loose material she walked out of the small cabin and up onto the deck of the small boat. She didn't know where Thatch was but she headed straight to the front of the ship, detouring only to pass the kitchen to grab another bottle of sake along the way.

Sighing she flung her legs over the railing and let her feet dangle over the edge. She could feel the small sprays of the ocean on her bare legs and she felt a small smile reach her face. She closed her eyes and felt the breeze against her skin and smelt the salt that burned at her throat, this was home. The sea would always be her home.

Twisting off the cork to her new bottle she threw it over the edge and watched it disappear into the water below. Throwing back her head she sipped at her drink wanting to savour it for longer this time around. She didn't know how long it was going to take to get back to the Moby, or if they were even going to stop at any island in the meantime. Seeing the small single crate of sake in the kitchen she thought it wise to try and ration it out for as long as possible.

"Can't sleep?" Thatch spoke from somewhere behind her. She felt her entire body tense up at his sudden appearance. It wasn't easy for someone to sneak up on her, worse when they snuck up on her from behind. She felt his presence move closer towards her and she heard his boots this time move against the wooden deck. His arms appeared in her sights first as he leant over the railing next to her. She risked a small glance at him and saw his eyes glaring at the bottle in her hands.

"I'm eighteen now Thatch," she smirked lifting the bottle back to her lips.

"Still too young for sake," he grumbled and snatched the bottle from her hands and took a swig. She held out her hand and gave her fingers a small wiggle indicating the return of her bottle.

"You were the first one to give me sake, remember?" she teased and a light shone in her guardian's eyes as the memory came back to them both.

"You guys never did tell me what that was for?" he asked, handing back her bottle.

"Can't remember," she lied.

They both sat in silence and watched out over the night ocean sky. It was almost like old times. Almost.

"You got a tattoo?" Thatch question caught her off guard and she quickly followed his glance down to her exposed thigh. With a nod she gentle pulled the silk robe back over to cover the traces of the mark. The mark was for her and her only, all of her tattoos were reminders of why she did the things she did now.

"Pops will be happy." His hand gentle tugged as her robe until the Mark of the Whitebeard Pirates shone brightly up at them both. It was a long time ago she got that mark, after everything had changed. It was the only thing she could think off to cover up the previous marks scorched into her skin by that monster. Her father, still there to protect her from the sights of pure evil. But she wouldn't always know what lay beneath that small layer of protection.

"How long till we get there?" she asked not taking her eyes off the ocean.

"Late tomorrow, or I should say today." Thatch stared at her as he answered.

She felt her entire frame freeze as the timeline was revealed. So soon. In less than fourteen hours she was going to be back on the Moby Dick. Back with the people she held so dearly to her heart. The people who could break what was left of the suffering organ in her chest in an instant. When they found out what she did, what she was, they would hate her. They wouldn't be able to look at her again, she would lose everything she had left tying herself to this world.

"Hey, it's going to be okay Turtle," Thatch's hand was on top of hers in an instant and she felt her breath hitch. Her instincts screamed at her to run. To put distance between her and any person who dared to touch her. His hand gripped onto hers and she found her body being moved. "Calm breaths Flick, I'm right here." His voice soothed her like it always did when she was a kid.

"Two days. Please give me two more days." She looked up at her guardian and pleaded to him. She couldn't do this yet, she wasn't prepared yet. "Please Thatch, two days."

"Flick," his hand moved to cup her cheek and she felt herself leaning into his touch. Her mind was screaming at her, telling her different things. Her fight or flight instincts were on fire trying to tear the man touching her away from her skin. But her heart was pleading for her to never let go. She was so confused, so was scared.

"Two days," she whimpered as his arms pulled her into his chest. She was losing her mind.

"Okay, two days." Thatch sighed and held onto her tighter.

She was exhausted the next time she opened her eyes. She felt like she hadn't slept a wink in her entire life. Her body was heavy and sore after finally letting her past battles catch up to her. Sitting up from her bed she leant against the wooden wall and let her head fall back against it. So much has happened and now she was sitting in one place.

She could hear Thatch's heavy footsteps above her no doubt steering the boat towards their destination. She had two days, to figure out what she was going to do. What she was going to say to them all.

The light creeped through the window lighting up the cabin she was sleeping in. Her eyes flickered down to her duffle bag beside her bed. The contents of it were half thrown on the ground from last night's desperate search for her sake. But her eyes caught onto something that caused her to question herself.

The tone dial.

A single tone dial was all she had left to remember her brothers. Each of them had spoken in it for a few minutes before she had left them all those years ago. With a trembling hand she reached into the bag and pulled out the cream coloured shell and pulled it into her lap. She hadn't pressed down on the apex in such a long time. It must have been at least a year since she last tortured herself over the sounds of their voices.

Her finger ghosted over the top, urging her to press it, to hear the small bit of reassurance from her brothers that everything was going to be alright, that they loved her no matter what. Those were the worlds she had desperately clung to the moment she had stepped onto that island with Thatch and Lyon.

 _Click._

 _'Do I speak now?'_ Ace's voice was the first thing she heard. _'What do I say?'_

 _'Whatever you want too,'_ Sabo.

 _'Octavia, first off we lov'_

Ace's voice was cut off as she slammed her hand down on the top of the shell, shutting it off completely. Tears sprung to her eyes as she slammed her head against the wall over and over again. She couldn't do this. She couldn't face them.

Flinging herself off the bed she threw all the contents into the bag and quickly flung it over her shoulder. Her cloak and hood was firmly over her nightwear as she ran up the stairs. She couldn't do it, she couldn't face them after what she had done.

She didn't care how far away the next island was she going to run there. Her shield lasted for a good hour before she started to tire, but going back was going to be worse than a little exhaustion.

 _'You can run princess, but I will always find you,'_ the voice snarled in her mind and her body flinched away from the open space and she pressed her back up against the nearest wall. Her eyes darted around the room searching for his shadow that always lurked in the darkness.

 _'You destroy everything you ever touch,'_ the mocking laughter of her tormenter forced her hands to her temples. Pounding her fists over and over again to make it stop.

"Just stop, stop it!" she growled, bursting out onto the deck she readied herself to escape when she froze in place. Her eyes grew wide staring at the site before her. Her body trembled as the familiar whale ship was right in front of her.

"Flick," Thatch walked towards her, his hands up in surrender.

"You lied to me." She gasped, looking back and forth between her guardian and the place she once called her home.

"Flick please," he stepped forwards.

"You fucken lied to me!" she screamed, feeling her instincts clawing at her skin. She felt trapped and cornered in an impossible situation. Her skin crawled beneath her clothes begging her to make it stop. Her hand ghosted along her blades ready to defend herself, to make her escape.

"Because I knew you would run!" he screamed back at her, "you can't keep running Octavia."

Her eyes caught site of a fiery blue flame heading straight towards her and her last escape was blocked. The large phoenix landed on the deck of the ship and transformed into her familiar guardian.

"Marco," she whispered his name. Her hand pressed against her hidden blade at her thigh.

"Welcome home Octavia," he smiled towards her and she flinched back "everyone's missed you so much."

Her eyes darted back to the Moby Dick and she felt her insides screaming at her.

"You're home now, you don't have to be afraid." His voice caused her to flinch backwards. She would never stop being afraid. Closing her eyes she prepared herself just like any other situation she found herself to be in. Good or bad. Calculate your actions, worry about the emotions later. Her years of training and conditioning has kept her alive up till today, she wasn't going to stop now. Masking her expression she opened her eyes and stared at her guardian.

"Take me to see him." She spoke looking at Marco. Her father was the only reason she was hear. She would see him and then leave. That was the safest thing to do. It was the safest thing for all of them.

She held out her hand to Marco who ignored it and stepped closer towards her. His arms wrapped around her waist and she found herself in his warm arms and pressed against his heated body. She resisted the urge to take in his calming scent and hug him back. She couldn't do that to herself again.

"I've missed you Octavia," he whispered in her ear before transforming into his phoenix form and launching them both into the air. Closing her eyes she felt the last bit of freedom before landing into her anxiety filled nightmare.

She was afraid.

She was afraid of everything that she was going to face today. She didn't want to see her father sick and dying in a bed, she didn't want to face the wrath of her brothers or their pained faces, she didn't want to bare the hateful words they will be throw at her when they found out what she did.

But to be honest, she knew she deserved every bit of their hatred and wrath. And she would take it all, she would accept her punishment whatever it may be. It was the least she deserved.

She opened her eyes to see the large deck coming closer and closer as they dove in for the landing. But what her eyes caught make her panic. Her father was sitting in his usual thrown like chair on the deck of his pride and joy. Tubes and cords ran from his body and into machines next to him. Marco flew them down closer and she felt every instinct in her to run. Her eyes glanced to the mast and she disappearing from Marco's grasp and landed on the wooden beam.

Hushed remarks were heard all over the deck but she blocked them out. Her eyes never left her fathers. Her hands gripped into the wooden beam as his head lifted and his eyes connected with hers. Tears welled in her eyes as the large man smiled up towards her. Marco landed beside him and he transformed back into his human form as he said something to her father and she heard his laugh bellow over the deck. A sob burst through her lips and she cursed these men to the very pits of hell for breaking through to her. She hadn't cried since that day, and now just seeing them brought back every emotion.

This was why she left.

This was why she ran and never looked back.

They would forgive her.

They would accept her and her faults.

But after what she did she could never accept herself.

"My daughter has returned." Whitebeard lifted his hand towards her and the mass of pirates on the deck turned to face her and cheered at her return. All she could do was stare at the man and shake off the tears that ran down her face.

"Come down my daughter," he called for her and she shook her head. She couldn't go closer.

"I can't," she whimpered to herself as she stared at the man that meant the world to her.

"Clear the deck." Whitebeard ordered and then suddenly the deck was empty. Only the captain himself and the commanders were standing on the deck. She didn't dare look at her other guardian's faces. She couldn't handle it all right now.

"Come down and give your Papa a hug." Her father spoke and she felt her body shudder.

"Papa," she whispered letting her tears wash down her face.

"You're home child." His voice reached her and she felt her body moving on its own. She flickered from her perch and landed right in her father's lap. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she clung to him desperately.

"I'm sorry Papa," she wailed. "I'm so sorry."

"Hush now my child." He ran his fingers through her hair and she started to lose control over herself.

"I'm sorry, I failed you, I'm so sorry." Her voice broke as the flood of emotions bubbled out.

"You're home now. You're home." She hiccupped and tried to calm down her breathing.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I never meant too – I tried to stop – I couldn't – please," she lifted her head from her hidden cacoon and looked at her father in eyes. "You have to believe me, I never meant for it to happen."

"You are my daughter Octavia, I pray that you never forget that. _Never_ forget what we have taught you, what you should hold dear to your heart." Her father spoke to her with such conviction a sob broke through her chest and her hand cupped over her mouth. If only he knew, if only they all knew what she had done, they wouldn't look at her with such love and devotion.

"Octavia," a voice called her and she pried herself away from her father and stared at the faces of her precious people. Izo stepped forwards looking the same as ever. His arms raised she felt herself being passed from her father to her favourite sharpshooter.

"You're so beautiful," he whispered into her hair as she hugged him back. She snorted through the tears as she fought back the laugh. Of course Izo would mention her looks first. She felt his hands on her shoulders and she pulled back to stand in front of her guardian.

"Silvers Octavia." A voice snarled from behind her. Snapping around quickly she felt her hand go to her thigh where her blade was hidden. Her eyes grew wide at the site of her favourite medic.

"Lia?" she whispered out her name as she stormed towards her. She froze as the sound of a slap echoed over the whole ship. Her head was twisted to the side and she felt the burning of her cheek that had been hit.

"Lia, what the hell!" The guardians screamed at Lia, but she held up her hand. She turned her head back to Lia and saw the tears rolling down her face.

"Do you have - _any_ \- idea what you put us through, what you put your brothers through!" she screamed at her. This was what she deserved, this is what she knew would happen when she returned. Her eyes started to fall but then her hand was gripping her chin forcing her to stare back at her.

"Do you have any idea how worried we all were for you, when you didn't show up? When you seemed to disappear off face of the map or when Thatch came back completely destroyed and catatonic mumbling about you! We thought you were dead! Do you have _any_ idea what that did to everyone?" she screamed at her and she found herself froze still. She had thought about those questions every day. Every day she thought about her family and brothers and what would happen if she dared go back.

"I thought we drilled it into your thick head long ago, you belong here with us. No matter what happens." Suddenly Lia let go of her chin and she was pulled in her medic's arms. "You're grounded you know that right." Lia mumbled and she found herself nodding into her chest.

She was passed around from guardian to guardian and she felt her heart constrict every time she was hugged and handed over to the next person. Her eyes roamed around for her brothers. She needed to see them the most, she needed to know what they thought of her now. For better or for worse she needed to know.

"My brothers?" she asked looking back to her father. His expression grew tired and she prepared herself for what was to come next. They didn't want to see her, they left knowing she was coming back.

"I see." She whispered, completely understanding why they left.

"Luffy set off a few months ago, he went back to Dawn Island to visit Makino before he started his own way." Marco stepped forwards and explained. "He waited for as long as he could, but he left a few months ago."

"Waited?" she found herself asking. She knew he was dead set on leaving when he turned seventeen. Why did he wait?

"For you Flick," he answered and her eyes went wide. "He kept saying over and over that you promised to join his crew for the same amount of time you were gone. He was so sure you would join him." She didn't know what to say. She was in shock. He still wanted her on his crew.

"Sabo?" she questioned, looking around for her fourth guardian. He wasn't here. Where was Namur?

"He left with Namur a few years ago, there was some trouble at Fishman Island and Sabo refused to let Namur go alone. Sabo met some interesting people along the way. He's joined the revolutionaries." Marco explained so much in such a small sentence she felt her head spin.

"Ace?" she would find out more details later but for now she needed to know where her eldest brother was. Each of the guardians looked from one another and then to her father.

"Papa where is Ace?" she questioned more urgently this time.

"He's travelling." He answered her question slowly and carefully. She understood now.

"Come on, let's get you in the shower and into some new clothes." Izo pulled her away from the group and Lia tagged along beside her. She felt her medic grab onto her free hand and she was grateful for the grounding feeling it gave her.

"How is Papa really?" she asked as she let her head fall back against the bathtub. Lia sat on the outside rubbing her hands through her hair brushing through the treatment that she was forced into having. It took one look from the two fashion guru's to force her into a full bath and repair session.

Lia sighed before pouring a jug of water over her head her hand was on her forehead stopping the water from flooding her face.

"I won't baby you like the others Flick, he worried about you a lot. It wasn't good for him or his health." Lia spoke bluntly and she winced. "He's getting old now. He doesn't bounce back the way he used too. And the stubborn fool doesn't listen to a thing I say." She rolled her eyes already knowing that. Stubbornness ran in their family, even though none of them were blood related it was an aspect that they all inherited from that man.

"After this, you're getting a full physical and I will not hear a single objection. Do I make myself clear?" Lia spoke and she felt a smile form on her face. She missed Lia so much.

"Yes ma'am." She smirked.

Lia and Izo left her after she was deemed clean enough, which left her sitting on the edge of the bath looking in a mirror at her naked body. It was a completely different reflection staring back at her from the last time she looked into this same mirror.

Her long dark hair looked unnatural for her appearance, but its pitch black colour was a necessity for her survival. She ran her fingers through the locks and grimaced when they got caught in the split ends near the bottom, she really needed to ask Izo for a haircut. Her eyes ran from her head and down to her shoulders and chest. Puberty was definitely something she wished she had a girl around for. She remembered the moment she got her first period and the horror on Thatch and Lyon's faces when she questioned the things happening to her body.

Her hand drifted to the dark tattoo that rested over her heart. The shape of a paw print. Her hand cupped the tattoo and her eyes squeezed shut remembering the final happy moments she had with Ghost. He was her best friend when they had left. He was the one to curl up with her on her bed at night, he was the one who kept a lookout when she snuck out after dark; he was her animal brother.

Turning around she glanced over her shoulder and read the letters that marked down her spine. Her second tattoo she got, exactly one year into her time away with Thatch and Lyon. The initial of everyone who was important to her ran from the top of her neck down her spine and finished half way down her back.

She got the idea from Ace, after the reveal of one of his wanted posters. Bastard got one before the lot of them and his title, Fire Fist Ace. How appropriate, she remembered rolling her eyes at the site of her shirtless brother grinning at the camera. What caught her eye first was the large tattoo that ran down his arm. A.S.L.O. She would never admit but she sat up the whole night crying over that poster when she first saw it. To know that her brother loved her enough to mark her on his skin. The next day she went out and did the same, but the letters that she held dear to her went on for a little bit longer.

"You're beautiful Octavia," Izo spoke snapping her out of her trance. She looked in the reflection and noticed both Izo and Lia standing there looking at her.

"Ready?" Lia asked taking a step forward. She was sure her eyes lingered a little longer at the three L's on her back, it took her a fraction of a second to realise that yes, one of them represented her.

"Let's get this over with," Octavia sighed moving toward the cold metal table and laid down. She lay there in silence until Lia would point out a mark that she couldn't quite determine how it got there and demanded for the story, some of them were short and easy, bar fight with a drunk, fell through a window, stabbed herself training to catch a flying dagger, simple ones. But some of them were not, she chose to pass on several ones that were too painful to remember, so instead she mentioned the weapon and nothing else. That was in the end all she really needed to know. The room seemed to freeze over as Lia turned over her hand and looked at her wrist.

"Flick," her voice was soft and filled with worry. She knew what the medic was seeing. Two long silver lines that ran across her skin. Evidence of the only marks she had given to herself.

"Don't," she gentle pulled her wrist free from accusing eyes and moved to escape from the room.

"Flick," Izo stepped forwards and held onto her shoulders ceasing her movements. "You're home now." He leant forwards pressing a kiss into her temple. "You're safe," that was all he needed to do to bring on the onslaught of tears that were threating to spill. Everyone would soon know of the two identical scars that ran down her wrists, they would know the attempt that she made out of complete desperation.

"I don't deserve to be," she whispered to herself as she walked out the door and towards her familiar room.

She paused outside of her father's door. It was late as she crept through the halls of the Moby Dick. But she couldn't sleep and Thatch had forbidden her from drinking alone and she promised to abide. Which Marco had double teamed her and threatened hours upon hours of training if she dared to break that promise to them.

She had searched the major places for her guardian, for any of her guardians really, but she couldn't find not one of them. Lia was already asleep so she didn't want to wake the beast and ask her to be her drinking partner, so she went to the next best thing, her father. No doubt he was already onto his third or even fourth barrel of sake and she was happy to join.

She had stayed in her old room for as long as an hour before her mind went nuts with memories that haunted her, she had to leave. She would roam the halls for the whole night if she had to, but everywhere she turned there were more happy memories of them growing up together. Now she wasn't sure if she could even call herself their sister. She lost that right a long time ago and she wasn't sure if she would ever earn that right back.

"…drum Island. He's tracking him down faster now." Marco's voice spoke and it made her pause. She pushed her back against the wall and tormented with herself. She knew eavesdropping was rude, but doing it on her own family was worse.

"Idiot's going to get himself killed." Thatch snarled and she was more invested now.

"Ace can take care of himself." Izo spoke out harshly. "What we should be _more_ worried about is telling Flick." Now she knew where all her guardians were.

"We can't tell her yet." Thatch's defeated voice sent off alarms in her head. They were keeping something from her that revolved around Ace and her. "She's home now. After all these years she is finally home and we can help her heal. If she finds out what he's trying to do she will leave again."

"She deserves to know." Izo spoke a little softer this time.

"Don't you think I don't know that? You didn't see her back there, you didn't have to stand by and watch as she destroyed herself after what he-" Thatch sighed and she could just imagine him rubbing the back of his neck. "- but she also deserves some kind of peace, when Ace kills Teach this will all be over. She can live in peace and not have to be looking over her shoulder at every second she's off this ship." The anger in his voice caused her blood to start to boil.

He told them.

They all knew.

"There is not a single person aboard this ship who doesn't want the same thing for her. But I don't know what Teach's plan is." Whitebeard spoke and her heart pounded in her chest. Her father knew. They all knew.

"He's dangerous." Marco added. "We need to bring Ace back, he's out there with only rage guiding him. He's going to get himself killed."

Ace knew.

Tears flooded down her face when everything slowly pieced itself together. She now knew exactly why Ace wasn't here. He was out there; he was trying to kill the very demon that starred in every one of her nightmares. He was still protecting her.

"Flick, are you alright?" a voice called out from down the hallway and her head snapped up as Lyon jogged towards her. The door next to her flung open and she was faced off with a horror struck Thatch.

"Turtle…" he whispered, reaching out to her but she startled backwards.

"You told them." Her voice was firm and strong but the tears that flooded down her face gave away how betrayed she felt. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!" she lashed out.

"Flick please," he stepped forward as she counted one backwards. Her mind racing.

"You've been lying to me for weeks." She only had to take a look at her Father to know that he wasn't on his death bed the way Thatch had convinced her back on the island. Or the amount of days the Moby Dick was away from them.

"Yes, I have. I've been lying to protect you. Of course I told them Octavia. They're our family and we protect our family." He stepped forwards and forcefully pulled her towards him. His hand gripped onto her cheeks as he bent down and looked at her in the eyes.

"Every single one of our family knows what that bastard did to you and what he made you do and every single member of our family is out for his blood. Not yours, his."

"No stop!" she screamed letting her rage fan out around her. "No matter how many times you say it, I have the blood of every single one of those villagers on my hands. I killed so many people. Me, not him, it was my power that slaughtered every single one of those innocent people; men, woman and children god, I fucken killed K-" her hand cupped over her mouth as his face flashed in her mind. "I killed him. He smiled to me as he choked on his own blood, he kept telling me over and over again that it was okay. But it's not okay, don't you understand it will never be okay. I killed him, I loved him and I killed him!" She screamed and felt her knees grow weak beneath her.

"I kill everyone I love." She sunk towards the ground, only Thatch's arms were holding her up. "Everyone around me who tries to protect me dies. My parents, Keito, Ghost and now Ace is out there. Don't you get it? That's why I couldn't come back." She looked up at her guardian, pleading with him to understand. "I killed them." Her arms wrapped around her chest as she tried so hard to hold herself together. "I killed them all Thatch, they're all dead because of me."

"No Kiddo, each of them were killed protecting you because they love you. Keito loved you so much Octavia. And Ghost, you rescued him once upon a time and now it was his turn to rescue you." Thatch sat down beside her and pulled her into his lap. "They wouldn't want you doing this to yourself," his fingers stroked through her hair as she clutched into his shirt like a lifeline, "Keito would want you to be strong, to fight back. Remember your sparring matches; he never let you back down then, so why are you giving up now?"

"You cannot be serious?" she spoke glaring at her father. After everything that had happened, and after everything they all knew, he was still sending her away from the battle. She knew she had been the optimum of weak these last few weeks being home. But, that was then and this is now. She was talking with her guardians on a daily basis on a crash course therapy regime. She began training again with Marco and she even helped out in the kitchen again. She was feeling more like herself in the last three weeks than she had in the last five years.

"You promised your brother did you not?" Whitebeard smirked at her and she felt the urge to groan and throw a shoe at him.

"I've spent five years away from Luffy, I'll spend ten years with him when this is all over to make up for it." She argued but all she got was a loud laugh from her father. Not exactly how she planned to convince him to let her fight with them.

"My orders are final, you will go to Luffy and follow through with your promise to him. We raised you to honour the promises you make, didn't we?" he questioned and she groaned slumping back into the chair opposite him. It had been three weeks since her break down and a week since her revelation hit her square on the head and back into the game. She was not going to hide for a moment longer. If Ace was out there fighting for her own freedom, then she was going to be there right beside him. She was one fourth of the Whitebeard Wolfpack, and she was not going to back down again.

Never again.

With that thought alone she yearned for a drink or ten. The demon vision of herself on her shoulder always herded her towards a bottle when things looked impossible, and sometimes the angel did too.

But she was adamant now. She was going to train like she had never trained before, she was going to get stronger every single day, until the time came when she could send a thousand arrows into the devils heart. She would destroy his life like he had destroyed countless others.

She couldn't do that if she was off in the Blue seas, or even in Paradise with a bunch of rookie pirates who had never seen a true battle. She needed to be here with her family and learn from the best. She would take a thousand of Marco's training sessions if she had to.

"That is not a request Octavia, you will go find Luffy and you will honour your promise." Her father spoke firmly and for the first time in her entire life she felt as though he was speaking to her as her captain and less of her father. She lifted her head and gazed into his eyes, she needed to see what he saw. And what she saw made her groan. There was no getting out of this.

"If anything happens-" she spoke but was interrupted.

"You and your brothers will be first to know. But for now my daughter it's time to live your life, go on an adventure with your younger brother. Go see the world through new eyes and experience everything you can get your hands on." She couldn't help but smile at the way her father spoke about the ocean and everything that inhabited it. It reminded her of the stories he used to read to them when they were kids. He spoke of the world as if it was just one great big adventure just waiting to happen.

"That's a lot of sake," she grinned back at her laughing father.

"I have raised you well." They laughed together. Disappearing from her chair she appeared on her father's desk and peered up at him. Even though she had grown a good head and a bit taller she was still nowhere near his height.

"I missed you every day," she whispered to him. She hated herself for falling into that monsters spell. She hated herself for wasting so much time in fear when she could have been growing stronger to defeat the monster. That he was able to defeat her in a mere moment after her family and given her so much strength.

"As did I, and as I will every day from now," he pulled her effortlessly off the table and into his chest. "Now remove this horrid colour, black does not suit the daughter of Whitebeard." She laughed, feeling her father's fingers running through her still darkened locks. She was hesitant to reveal her true hair colour back to the world. It would paint the target on her back larger and brighter than before. The smile on her face grew wider as a plan forged its way into her mind. There was a simple way to counter her own image with the image of something else.

"It's time to bring that prophecy to light." Her father chuckled and she couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"Seriously Papa, you made that prophecy up." She laughed along with him. Everyone on board the Moby Dick, hell every ally of Whitebeard knew his self-proclaimed proclaimed vision.

"The Whitebeard Wolfpack will wreak havoc on the world." He laughed running his fingers over the end of her braid.

"Pretty sure we already started," she whispered but nodded. She understood what her father was trying to remind her. She was a Whitebeard Pirate, she was his daughter. She would not lay down and let others walk over her, she would stand back up and fight for what she believed in.

God help her she had no idea how she was going to manage it, but somehow she will.

Thatch found her later that night at the other end of the ship sitting with her legs dangling over the front of the figurehead. A drink in her hand and her face staring up at the night sky. Lyon had put up a feast fit for kings as celebration for her last night on board.

"Hey Squirt," she glanced back over her shoulder as Thatch fidgeted awkwardly on his feet. It had been a week since they had last spoken to each other. Well, Thatch had tried but she was still angry. She knew she had no right to be, but it still hurt that he lied to her. Even if it was to protect her.

"Hey," she whispered back and shuffled a bit to the side. It was more than enough of an invitation for Thatch to climb over the railing and sit next to her.

"Flick I'm sor-"

She cut off his rant by picking up his hand. She knew that already. She knew he was sorry but he would do it a thousand times over again. She leant to the side and rested her head on his shoulder. His arm moved around her and soon she was in his lap with both his arms wrapped firmly around her.

"I'm afraid," she whispered to the one man who had seen her at every stage of her life.

"I know," his arms grew rigid around her, "we will get him for this Flick. I promise you."

"I know we will. But that's not," her voice trailed off and she sighed, "Luffy." She finally voiced her largest fear at the moment. What she was not expecting was a laugh from her guardian.

"You're afraid of Little Luffy," he laughed again and she wacked him.

"I'm serious Thatch, I left him. You know how he hates being alone, how he hates weaklings and cry-babies. I don't doubt that he feels completely betrayed and I don't blame him if he never wants to see me again let alone join his crew or be his sister." She vented and that quickly sobered him up.

"You're an idiot Flick," he ruffled her hair and she groaned. "Your brothers love you more than anything in this world. Nothing would ever turn them away from you, not even you." He turned her in his lap so they were facing each other, "you four know each other better than you know yourselves. Luffy may not know what happened, but he knows you Octavia. Luffy won't care about the past only that you are there with him now. That and whose ass he needs to kick for hurting his sister."

"Luffy doesn't know?" she skipped over the rest of his speech and ran the words through her mind.

"Not everything," Thatch sighed, "When I first came back I could barely control myself Flick. When Pops finally sat me down and I was able to tell them what happened, Luffy heard only what he needed to hear before walking out of the room claiming that you would forever be his sister and he would kick anyone's ass who tried to change that. The Little brats tried to steal a boat that night to go find you too, determined to find you."

"Idiots," she groaned but couldn't fight off the small smile that graced her lips. Luffy was still the same as always, so sweet and innocent. He found the good in everyone, even for people who don't deserve his kindness.

"Those are your brothers remember, you chose them." Thatch laughed and pulled her back against his chest.

"Pretty sure they forced this brotherhood thing upon me," she laughed.

"I'm going to miss you Octavia," he spoke into her hair and she wrapped her hands around his arms tighter. She was finally back to what she could only call a sort of normal self, and now she was leaving again. Only this time is was on her terms and with her family in full support of her.

Together they would hunt down and kill Teach.

He would be stopped no matter what the cost.

"Love you big brother," she whispered.

"Big," she heard the intake of his breath, "brother?" he asked almost in shock as she nodded against his slightly vibrating chest.

"Thank you," they both mumbled together and clung to each other.

"Love you too, squirt," he hiccupped and she pulled back.

"Thatch, are you crying!" she laughed, seeing his watery puffy eyes.

"No it's the sea salt." He quickly rubbed at them furiously and she laughed pulling herself back into his arms.

"Big idiot," she spoke as he whimpered like a big cry baby.

"That's big brother to you," he laughed and she instantly regretted saying that out loud.

"Now come on, I have a surprise for you." He grinned, throwing her over his shoulder and jumping back onto the deck. A squeal forced its way out of her mouth as she hung on for dear life.

"Man I missed that sound."

"What the hell Thatch!" she laughed as she was carried through the crowds of whitebeard pirates all drinking away into the celebrations.

"Just shut up and let me do this," he jumped in his step and she groaned as she landed hard against his shoulder as he bounced her. Laying her hands under her chin she watched as they disappeared down the corridors and towards Whitebeards room.

A second later Thatch knocked on the door and pushed it open with his foot.

"…seriously if he doesn't hurry the fuck up and get here I'm coming home."

A voice echoed around the room and she felt her body still. Slowly Thatch lowered her to the ground and she turned towards her father's desk. There sitting on top of the wood desk was a purple snail.

"Guys are you even listening to me!" the voice grew angry and tears flooded her eyes as she watched the tiny snail's eyes mimic the person on the other end. "That's it, I'm on the first boat back screw the marines I'll destroy them all if they -"

"Sabo?" her voice broke and her hand cupped her mouth. She watched as the snails eyes turned from frustrated to surprise in a second.

"Flick?"

"Sabo," she answered his call and she moved closer towards the snail in hopes of getting one step closer to her brother.

"Thank god," his voice was deeper than the last time she had heard it but it was him. "Are you okay?" he asked and she nodded through her tears.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She answered with a small hiccup her hand came up and wiped away the snot form her face.

"Guys can we talk alone?" Sabo's voice asked and she looked up at her family. They looked at each other for a moment before agreeing.

"We'll be right outside, take your time." Thatch whispered to her and gave her hand one last squeeze before they left the room one after the other.

"Are you alone?" Sabo questioned as she sat down on the desk to move closer to the snail.

"Yes," she said.

"God Octavia," Sabo's painful voice flooded through the speaker. "Remember when you first left us, when you found out about the threat of the buster call and you ran off in the middle of the night. You were so afraid that someone would come for you and kill us all in the process. You ran away to try and protect us."

"I remember Sabo," she whispered.

"I guess you need another lesson Flick. Remember what we said, we are family. You are our sister and there isn't a single person in the world that could come between us. Not even you. We left that night against ever order to come find you. We will always come and find you Flick, we will take on whoever dares to touch you and we will destroy them." His voice was firm as he spoke and she could just imagine him starring deep into her eyes as he reassured her.

"We fight each other's battles remember. Your enemy is our enemy and our enemy is yours. When you hurt so do we, so when the time comes, we will stand together to face our enemy. We will stand as the Whitebeard Wolfpack, with our guardians and friends and family by our side and we will stand as one. You are never alone in this, so whatever dark thoughts come creeping back into that thick headed mind of yours you remember what I said, alright?" He waited and all she could do was nod. The tears were flooding down her face and she could barely hold onto her body as it trembled.

"Flick?" he questioned and the snail eyes mimicked his own panicked voice.

"You still want me as a sister?" she hiccupped and the snail laughed.

"You and Ace seriously - of course you dumbass. I don't know if you get this yet or not, but there is no going back on that pact we made. We are brothers and sisters for _life_. No take backs." He laughed and that was enough for her to laugh through her snot and tears.

"I really missed you Sabo," she admitted.

"I missed you more."

 _'We cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.'_

 ** _Well there we go guys!_**

 ** _What did you think? Did I somewhat keep it up?_**

 ** _Advanced apologies, will try to upload as soon as I am happy with the next chapters and so on so forth. Not weekly updates like part 1._**

 ** _Thanks!_**

 ** _Octavia_**

 ** _xx_**


	2. Sabo

**Wow well I did not expect that kind of response from the first chapter! It was quite incredible really. And thank you to everyone for your reviews and comments! They are what truly keep me going lol**

 **Hope you all enjoy a** ** _little_** **bit of Sabo!**

 ** _'The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams'_**

It had been a long few years for Sabo, and to be frank there were times that he thought, enough was enough. He wanted to shout up at the nearest kami and tell them to go fuck the right off and leave his family alone – all of his family.

It took months for his brothers, and himself to settle with the idea of letting Thatch and Shanks look for their sister. He couldn't remember the amount of times they were intercepted stealing a ship to set off to find her. They were even tempted to call Gramps to help search for her, but they quickly diminished that idea. They couldn't trust the other marines on their grandfather's ship – even though they trusted the man only slightly they knew he would help search for their missing girl.

But then the mess with Fishman Island called him away from his home and from his brothers and guardians. Namur needed him, but he also needed his guardian. He now understood completely why Flick left to go with Thatch – there was a bond between them and their guardians that reached a different level to being brothers. Their guardians had done so much for each and every one of them, that it was only fair to return that favour if only by a little bit.

Sabo was absolutely enthralled with the concept of Fishman Island and what the Queen was trying to accomplish – she was everything that he had envisioned for someone with that kind of power. Someone who was willing to sacrifice everything to create a peaceful home for her people and for those wanting to live there. She was trying to unite humans and fish-men, she was trying to end the difference between them and hopefully destroy all warrants for her people to be murdered or sold off to slavery.

For that alone, Sabo held every ounce of respect for the women every time Namur would read updated reports out to him, or stories of the past on how she had saved many of her people and humans from each other. So when the report came that she had been murdered, he was instantly by his guardian's side ready to set out and help in whatever way he could.

That was the first time he had every really heard about the rouge group that called themselves the revolutionaries. A small unit of all types of people who were banding together to take on whoever in the order of peace. They were there at Fishman Island investigating the assassination of the Queen and Namur was quick to introduce him off to Hack – a fellow fishman and one of the first recruits.

That was eight months ago, now he sat in a small room listening to Namur and some other revolutionaries discussing events that were happening over the world whilst they waited to meet with the leader.

Namur was both angry and understanding when he mentioned he wanted to visit he revolutionaries. He wanted to see what these people were about and what they were truly wanting to become in this world. But Namur wasn't please for some reason, but still went along with his request.

"Namur, you can come in." Hack opened the oak door and revealed a surprisingly small office space. It took a bit of convincing, well it took a hell of a lot of convincing to even organise this little meeting with the so called head of the revolution let alone get a visit. But the Whitebeard name was one of legend, and it seemed that this leader had that same respect for his Pops that most people seemed to have. He was sure that was the only reason this meeting was even happening.

"Dragon-sama, this is Namur, he's Whitebeards eighth divisional leader and his apprentice Sabo." Hack introduced them as they walked into the office. When he locked eyes with the leader of the group his eyes widened. His aura alone was quite frightening but it was the tattoos that gleamed across his face that took him by surprise. This was a wanted man by the World Government and they had barely begun their operations.

"Dragon-san thank you for seeing us," Namur bowed politely and he quickly followed suit.

"There is no trouble Namur, Whitebeard has shown true honour about the seas. His commanders are welcome amongst us." Dragon spoke with an almost smile and gestured to the seats in front of him. Sabo took a seat and continued to stare at the man in front of him.

"Hack speaks high praise of you both, especially of you Master Shian Sabo." Dragon spoke raising his eyebrow in all but a silent order to reveal himself. He gulped and looked to Namur whose' hands were in a tight fist, his knuckled starting to turn white.

"You know of my parentage I see?" Sabo stated, seeing through this little game.

"We visited Goa Kingdom, did you know that? We saw those flames engulfing half the island." Dragon spoke and watched him like a hawk at his reaction – and he got what he wanted – complete shock.

"You were there! When!" Sabo stood up with such force his chair scrapped loudly against the ground.

"The day that the Celestials arrived." Dragon answered and Sabo saw red.

"You were there that day! You were there when the entire _noblescum_ murdered hundreds of innocent people and you did nothing about it! Do you have any idea what type of people they were! They were organising to buy slaves! They wanted to destroy anything that they believed were beneath them! Which was everyone!" He yelled and Namur was quick to stand by his side placing his hands on his shoulders keeping him from lashing out.

"And you Master Shian, what role did your family play?"

"Do not call me that! I am no _family_ to those heathens of the world. I would rather see them all burn then to call them blood. I wish I was never born to those bastards!" He snarled and then he saw a small smile form on the leaders face.

"Indeed. I apologise for the interrogation Sabo, but you must understand, when my people researched your background, we were shocked to see someone of your past, requesting a meeting with the leader of the revolutionaries." Dragon spoke with a small hint of amusement.

"Was that really necessary," Namur sighed from behind him and he felt his guardian's grip on his shoulders lessen.

"The World Government have been repressing a lot of our activities from the world, as you can imagine, they do not want another source of _problems_ announced so freely to the public. I expect they believe they will defeat us before our name is spread." He smirked.

"What is it that your organisation hopes to accomplish," Sabo asked crossing his arms over his chest. Before coming into this meeting he never dreamt of stating that question so forcefully but after the very fun conversation he was just forced into, he felt it was within his right to be as blunt as the man in front of him was.

"Now that Sabo, is a very difficult question to answer." Dragon answered, all hints of the previous smirk now gone and was replaced with quite a serious face, "every single person here has had some kind of dealing with the World Government, marines, nobles and the Celestial dragons within their past. So every single person here is here because of something that they want changed within this world we currently live in. For you, I suppose would be the take down of the unfairness and cruelty that the world nobles given to the innocent people of their countries?" Dragon asked and Sabo felt himself nodding.

"That is one point, yes." He answered truthfully but there was so much more than just one thing.

"You envision more?" he asked a little surprised.

"To only see the problems that are effected by your own past is to be blind, to run and organisation and calling themselves the _RevolutionaryArmy_ , I am sure you can see past a single event, no?" Sabo answered with his own bit of emotion and he felt Namur's grip squeeze firmly. "Slavery of humans and fishman is a terribly large issue for the world, especially those who exhibit devil fruit abilities or such qualities, innocent people stripped of all basic human rights is just – well there is no world for how _sick_ that truly is."

"I agree." Dragon nodded and waved his hand for him to continue.

"The wanted posters that are released on mere children for acts they had no part in, or no control in what so ever is just ridiculous. To hunt a child for their parent's crimes is just barbaric, or destroying an entire island of people who only seek knowledge." He quickly changed his rant hoping to not seem too involved with hunted children, seeing as two of his siblings were in fact hunted and still wanted was an issue. He quickly remembered the single wanted poster that Luffy had clung to as a child, the picture of the young girl hunted for just knowing how to read a language was ridiculous.

"Indeed." Dragon let his elbows rest on the desk in front of him as he rested his chin on his hands.

"Do I need to go on, or have I passed whatever test this way?" Sabo asked feeling a smirk rise on his face. There was a moment of silence before Dragon burst out laughing.

"Dammit Sabo," Namur groaned and left his side and sunk in the chair.

Sabo was no idiot, he knew exactly what the older man was attempting to do. Gain as much information from him as possible by probing at his weakest points, his parentage and his family. If Dragon's people had managed to gather that much information on him in that short of a time, there was no doubt they researched his family too.

"You are as clever as your Pops says you are," Dragon calmed down. "He called and mentioned that I should meet with you."

This time is was both himself and Namur who stared at the man in confusion, they looked at each other and it seemed that both of them had no idea about this conversation.

"You spoke with Pops?" Sabo questioned.

"Yes, after the events that occurred on Fishman Island, and hearing about the events that took place with the two of you involved. I spoke with Whitebeard to request a meeting, he was very clear in stating that his youngest here would be the one asking for a meeting with me, first. It seems the old man is still as right as ever."

"We would like to offer you a place here Sabo for a year, let us prove to you what it is we are doing here." Dragon offered and Sabo looked at the man in shock. "And maybe after time you may find a place here with us."

"I'm sorry what?"

"I have discussed it with you Pops, he has agreed to let us take over your training for the time being." Dragon continued but still didn't answer all of his questions he had flowing through his mind. He looked to Namur and found his guardian looking just as shocked.

"Namur?" he voiced softly and his guardian snapped towards him. His shocked eyes quickly softening.

"Kid, this could be your place." Namur spoke slowly if hating every word that he was saying.

"No, the Moby is my place. My place is with you and with my siblings and everyone else!" Sabo stood back up not liking what he was hearing at all. He admitted that what the revolutionaries were doing were so far, exactly what he one day hoped he could be but now, not now.

"Sabo," Namur spoke gently, "Kid, you will always be a Whitebeard Pirate, you will always have a home and place upon the Moby Dick and belong with is forever. But this place, what they are trying to do – this is what you dream of isn't it. Being able to change the world for the better?" Namur moved forwards and placed his webbed hand on his head and ruffled at his slightly too long curls.

"Plus it's only for a year kid, the second you hate it hear the second I come back and pick you up. But you'll regret it if you don't give it a try," Namur spoke and he felt himself shake his head. It was all too good to be true and it was.

"Flick – she's still out there. I'm not leaving her." That was enough of a reason for him to say no. He wasn't going to abandon his sister when she desperately needed them the most, even if she hadn't realised it yet. Ace was right, they needed to be out there searching for her.

"You made a promise remember, Thach and Shanks are the ones who will bring her home and when she does come home, how do you think she would feel if you gave up this opportunity." Namur stated but he still wasn't convinced.

"Your sister is running from some very dangerous people," Dragon spoke up and Sabo's head snapped towards the man and a glare upon his face.

"What do you know of her!" Sabo demanded and Dragon lifted his hands in surrender.

"We have very little information on the red headed girl who is the youngest in history to be given a Black enveloped warrant for her arrest. But we do know of the strongest enemies that are after her. The man you are both familiar with who is calling himself Brown-beard now."

Both Namur and himself turned to face the man fully and growled.

"Where is he!"

"What do you know!"

The both shouted and Dragon held his hand back up.

"We have struck a deal with Whitebeard, if Sabo is to join us for the year he will be entitled to all the information we have on Brown-beard and his followers." Dragon answered, "All current information has already been passed onto Whitebeard, unfortunately we haven't gathered a great deal."

"So that's how you'll do it – you've discovered enough about me to know that I would do anything for my family, especially my siblings. So let me ask you this one question Dragon-san, what do you get out of me joining your group for a year? And no bullshit round-about crap, tell me straight out. What do you want from me?"

They both stared at each other almost sizing each other up before Dragon lowered his hands.

"You are a unique kid, Sabo, your views on the world are a very close match to my own and that is very rare, even in an organisation like this one where everyone's enemy is the same. But to come across someone who is _wanting_ to take on the whole world's problems, now that is something I am not willing to let slip away." Dragon answered honestly, "and I will be completely honest with you Sabo, your siblings mean a lot more to us than you may believe."

Sabo sat back down in the chair and groaned.

"You just had to finish with a cryptic comment didn't you," Sabo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. This was a lot to take in, and it was not something he could decide on his own.

"Give me a week, and you'll have your answer." Sabo bargained and Dragon nodded in approval.

"That is fair, speak with your family and make your decision. We will be leaving this island in seven days. If you are not back by then, we will know our answer." Dragon gave them a clear enough nod that their meeting was now over.

"Thank you, Dragon-san," Sabo bowed slightly and left the room right after Namur. As soon as the door was closed they both froze in their steps and sighed. That was a hell of a meeting they had.

"Let's go get a drink," Namur sighed and Sabo gave off a scoff, not even a month ago they were scolded by every guardian for sneaking a mug of rum from the galley and now he was actually being led towards a bar. "We have a lot to talk about."

"So what do you guys think?" Sabo asked a little out of breathe as he sat opposite his brothers on the Moby Dick. He had just spilt out absolutely everything that had happened in the last few months and he needed to know their opinions first and foremost. He glanced at Luffy and noticed his cloudy eyes, brat didn't listen to a word he had said.

"Ace?" he questioned.

"I don't know what to say," Ace answered truthfully. He pulled his hat off his head and rubbed his hands through his hair. It seemed they both had the same trait when they were stressed.

"It's only for a year right?" Luffy asked causing both of them to stare at their littlest brother in shock. He actually listened?

"Yes, that was the condition." Sabo answered.

"And you'll get to help people like those back in the fire?" Luffy shivered, remembering that horrible day that still brought nightmares every now and then to each of them.

"That's what they're trying to do, help those kinds of people." Sabo nodded and took his brother's hand and gave it a squeeze.

"Plus, you might gain some information on Flick or better yet on _Teach_." Ace growled out that man's name with so much venom.

"Yes, if they were able to gather all correct information on us in such a short time, it might be our best shot in finding either of them." Sabo added with a sigh. "These are all good points but,"

"- but it means leaving." Ace finished his sentence.

"Yeah," Sabo sighed letting his head hang. He didn't want to admit it but the first few nights apart from his siblings alone heading towards Fishman Island, he was plagued with nightmares. It wasn't as bad as what Flick had encounter without Thatch that one time, but it wasn't pleasant either.

"Do it." Ace spoke firmly but it didn't seem like he wanted to say it. "This is what you've wanted right, you want to destroy every one of these rich snobs right, get even with them right, this seems to be the way to do it. And it is only for a year and if we gather information on Flick then it really would be worth it. Plus if these guys are as big and bad as the World Government make them out to be, you might learn some really cool things." Ace finished his sentence and sighed. "But I don't want you to go either, but that's me being selfish." He grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders.

"So it's decided," Sabo sighed but let a small smile reach his face.

"We should have a feast to celebrate!" Luffy bounced to his feet.

 _One week later_

"Sabo, I want to introduce you to some of our gorilla teams." Hack pushed open the door and reveal a whole room full of people. There was an instant silence that fell over the once rowdy room as they all stared back at him. The newbie.

"Hello," Sabo bowed slightly trying to make sure he came off with a good impression. There were a lot of people in the revolutionary army and so far he had no one by his side – yet.

"Well I'd be damned."

A voice appeared from somewhere down the back of the room and Sabo had to squint to see a man standing up from one of the tables and walking towards him. The man was and oldish man with grey hair, but that didn't stop him assessing the muscles that the old man had.

"Brat, that really you?" another man stood up and joined the older man. Sabo tilted his head to try and make out these two in front of him. Then memories started to flash before him of his past.

"No way," Sabo whispered in complete shock as he looked at the two men in front of him. His smile started to widen as a goofy grin appeared on the dark haired man.

"Trai! Tatsumi!" Sabo shouted and ran towards the two men and threw his arms around them.

"You're alive!" they all spoke at the same time.

"What happened to you?" Tatsumi pulled away first and knelt in front of the blond boy. "Did Flick - is she?-" he let his voice trail off at the end, not wanting to admit the words out loud.

"Yes, she's fine, we made it." Sabo laughed, thinking back on those horrible, wonderful, terrifying memories. "We made it out but then they started firing cannons at us, we were about to die but then the Whit-"

"How about we take this conversation somewhere a little quieter?" Tatsumi butted in and Sabo quickly glanced around the room and discovered that their private reunion was not so quite after all.

"Agreed," Trai said standing up and leading them all out the door.

It took everything that he had inside of him to not start barrelling questions at the duo in front of him. He wanted to know their story probably just as much as they wanted to hear his. Trai unlocked a door which led into a private quarters, there were four bunk beds and a separate door that he assumed led into a bathroom.

"So kiddo tell us everything, are the others here with you now?" Tatsumi asked pulling out a chair at the small round wooden table in the middle of the room. Sabo pulled out the opposite chair and pulled his hat off his head laying it gentle into the table.

"That's a really long story," he sighed running a hand through his slightly too long curls. He knew he should have agreed to that haircut back at Fish Man Island when Namur had offered.

"But, no - I'm here on my own." He sighed looking back up at two men he knew instantly that he trusted. "We don't know where Flick is." He spoke the words that caused so much pain in his heart. His sister was missing and there was very little information on where she was, or what had happened to scare her into running.

Both Tatsumi and Trai shared a knowing glance before giving Sabo their undivided attention. Taking a deep breath he started from the beginning and rushed through most of their family history. He had to stop every now and then to answer a few questions when things didn't match up or he had forgotten certain parts that were important for future reference. He really wished he had brought his diaries with him, it would have made it a lot easier for this story telling business.

"The island that she was at, the attack happened last year?" Tatsumi asked.

"Yes, it was a few days later that Thatch had made it back to the ship. I'd never seen him like that before. Marco flew to the island to confirm the story and by the time we had made it there we saw it all with our own eyes. Pops refused to let us on the island, but we could see enough from the ship – we could smell enough." He winced remembering the smell that lingered over the entire island. The stench of death would never leave his memories. "The crew searched every body they came across, but none of them were Flick."

"Are you sure she was there?" Trai asked with a small hint of hope in his voice.

"Ghost was one of the bodies they found," Sabo whispered, remembering the single stretcher covered by a white sheet being carried back onto the Moby Dick. "Ghost was her wolf, she would never _ever_ leave without him."

"Sabo," Tatsumi spoke gently, "are you sure she's alive?"

"Yes," Sabo nodded definitely, "Thatch found her a few months later – he got a little more out of her but she managed to escape him."

"What happened Sabo?" Tatsumi leaned forwards and placed his hand over his fists on the table.

"He attacked her. He made her kill all those people, they injected her with something that caused her to lose her site and they took over her body. She could hear and feel every kill she made but she couldn't stop it." Sabo stopped and felt his breath start to waver. His fists had turned quickly and gripped onto the old man's in front of him. "He attacked my sister! He made her do unspeakable things!"

"Who my boy?" Trai placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Marshall D Teach," Sabo growled out the man's name.

"Blackbeard?" they both gasped.

"Yes."

There was a silence over the room and no one knew what to say. Each of them knew who the threat was in this world, but they had their own personal enemy that they would stop at nothing to eradicate.

"How's the kid?" Trai asked with a small grin.

"Luffy?" he questioned finally letting a genuine smile reach his face, "He's really good, come a long way from back then, he can keep up with Ace and me now which is surprising. He's leaving to go back home at the end of the year, back to the East Blue. He wants to set sail from home, just like he had planned all those years ago. He'll be seventeen next year and he wants to set off by himself." He felt a little guilty that he wouldn't be there for his send off, but he also knew that this was something that he needed to do alone.

"He's starting his own crew? I thought he was a Whitebeard pirate?" Tatsumi asked.

"He was always going to start his own crew, and everyone had accepted this. But Pops was determined to make all of us honorary Whitebeard Pirates no matter where we were or what flag we sailed under. We are always family there." Sabo sighed and his hand moved to his shoulder where his own symbol bared across his skin. He would always know where he truly belonged.

"How Ace going?" Trai continued.

"Hot headed as ever – he ate the Flame-Flame fruit a while back. Has a hell of a bounty alre-"

"Wait!" Trai cut him off, "Fire fist Ace is that little brat?"

Sabo took a moment and then burst out laughing. He remembered Ace's first wanted poster, his obnoxious orange hat was covering half of his face but his tattoo was enough of a giveaway, well for them it was.

"Yeah that's him." Sabo acknowledged and watched the two men shake their heads.

"No wonder Whitebeard handed you off to us, needed to separate you little terrors." Tatsumi grinned.

"Hey! I'm the good one!"

 _Eighteen Months Later_

"This girl must be taken care of!' Rushan stepped forwards slamming his hand down onto newspaper article. "She took out an entire island full of innocents three years ago and _now_ she destroyed an entire fleet of marines!" Rushan was head of the fourth division research team and ever since Sabo had arrived he automatically disliked this man. He hunted anyone he personally felt threatened by. This was the fourth meeting he had taken over in trying to convince others to hunt his sister.

"There is no proof that this was done by the same girl!" Sabo slammed his hands onto the table and squared off against the higher ranked man. He didn't give a damn who he was, no one was going to hunt his sister.

"You're always so damn sure that – that monster is innocent!" Rushan shouted.

"And you're always so damn quick to label everyone different as a monster!" Sabo responded.

"Enough," Dragon spoke out and the level of rage in the room lowered exponentially. "Send a team out to the site, see if we can gather any real intel on who took out the marine vessels and most importantly, why."

"Sir," Rushan bowed slowly as he accepted his orders with a grunt. The room slowly started to empty as that was the last notice of addressment for their meeting. Sighing Sabo sunk back down in his chair and looked to his leader. There were four people in the entire Revolutionary Army that knew exactly who he was and where he had come from. They each knew the hit upon his sister's head and they were doing everything to try and protect her. Even against the people in their very organisation.

"She wouldn't hurt anyone unless she was defending herself." Sabo whispered to the leader as his eyes scanned the photo of the marine vessel on flames sinking to the bottom of the ocean. His sister was powerful he knew that, but she wasn't like the rest of the world. She just wanted to live.

"Have your family made any further contact with her?" Dragon asked.

"Not recently, Shanks was a day out a few weeks ago somewhere near paradise but he missed her." Sabo let his head fall back against the chair with a thud. He wanted to be out there, he needed to be out there searching for his sister. But he promised he would leave it up to Thatch and Shanks. They would bring her back and then the three brothers would lecture her until she saw sense again.

"Do you think she would join us?" Dragon asked the same question that he asked a few months ago. It took him by as much surprise as it did back then.

"I don't know sir," he opened his eyes and looked at his leader, "she's so afraid of the world. She doesn't trust a single person. I don't know how she'd feel joining another band full of people she doesn't know." He winced as the truth he just spoke of. To say that it didn't pain him to realise that she too didn't trust them enough to come back to them.

"You said it yourself boy, she's afraid. Trusting you or your family have nothing to do with it. You know that. Imagine being in her place, would you lead an enemy back to your own home?" Dragon spoke gently and he found himself nodding. He knew that, he remembered every night when they were first rescued at the fear that they each held. But to feel a fear a million times worse than back then, he wouldn't know how he would survive. But that was it, his sister was stronger than the rest of them in that department.

 _Oneyearlater_

"Commander Sabo, sorry to disturb your rest, I know you didn't want to be disturbed but you have a call from _that_ number." The voice caused his eyes to flash open as he looked over at the young boy who was barely a soldier.

"Thanks Shin," Sabo spoke rushing towards his own personal den den mushi on his desk. He could see the little red light flashing just waiting to be answered.

"Hey guys!" He smiled picking up the hand piece.

"Sabo my boy, how are you? You are a hard man to track down." Pops spoke and he felt a rush of warmth wash over him as he heard his voice. No matter where he was in the world, the Whitebeard Pirates would always be his true home to his heart. There was nothing in the world that could take that away.

"Hey Pops, I'm doing well. Just got back from a mission that I'm sure you'll see floating around those papers in a few days' time." He laughed. "Although the Government will turn it into something it wasn't."

"Well that's just typical," Marco's voice responded through the phone and he wondered if all the guardians were there.

"Is everything alright?" Sabo questioned hesitantly. The last time they had a conference like this it was bad news. It's only ever bad news when they all call together.

"Octavia has come home." Pops spoke and his eyes went wide. His entire body was hit with a sudden wave of shock he had to quickly scramble for the mouth piece as it fell through his fingers.

"They found her," Sabo whispered, wishing that he could jump through the line and hug his now favourite guardian. Thatch had done it, he promised all those years ago that he would find her and bring her home safely.

"Yes he did. He is bringing her to my office shortly, Marco thought it would be best to give you a heads up." Pops laughed and he thanked Marco's mind. He needed a moment to collect his thoughts, he needed to say the right things to her. If only he was there, he would be able to hug all the feelings he had for her but this was different – he wasn't there.

"How is she?" he asked and he knew that his family wouldn't lie to him. He needed to truth.

"She's – broken my son." Pops answered.

Sabo took a second and flopped into the chair behind him. He didn't want to hear the answer but he knew it was the truth. Of course she would be, if anyone else in the world had been abused by the world like she had, they wouldn't be here to tell their story anymore. No one could live through what she has had too.

"But she will get there, she is turning herself around. Building herself up again like we've always taught her too." Marco answered and he felt a small smile on his face. Of course she would. She was a fighter – always fighting for something.

"Good, she will need us now more than ever." Sabo answered and he quickly looked over his schedule for the next month. He groaned reading the lock down order that was clear on his desk. The marines were too close to their base for anyone to make a move. They were on total lockdown for the next few weeks minimum.

"She will be going to catch up with Luffy, I have reminded her of the promise she made to your youngest brother. A few adventures in Paradise with him will be good for her." Pops added and he felt his mind blank.

"You're sending her away!"

"Gosh - they're all the same."

"Ace said the same thing."

"Calm down my son, we aren't sending her away. She needs time to heal and to find herself. She will only be reminded of her past if she is here preparing for a war. She needs to see the world through new eyes – make a new set of nakama that she can depend on. When the time comes for war, we will stand together. Our allies are always within reach, she will never be left alone again." Pops spoke and he felt himself nodding. What did they say, change was as good as a holiday.

"Where is she, I need to talk to her," he sighed desperate to speak to his sister.

"Thatch is already on his way down with her," Izo spoke with a laugh.

"Don't you dare smirk at me Izo! You've already seen and hugged her. I only get to talk with her!" he shouted and earned another laugh from his now least favourite guardian.

"Don't use that attitude with me young man," Izo responded but with no malice and only joking.

"What the fuck is Thatch doing, seriously if he doesn't hurry the fuck up and get here I'm coming home!" Sabo yelled and then there was a silence. He groaned banging his head against his wooden desk.

"Guys are you even listening to me!" he shouted into the receiver causing the little snails eyes to go wide in fright. When he was left with absolute silence he grew angry, "That's it. I'm on the first boat back, screw the marines, I'll destroy them all if they -"

"Sabo?"

He grew silent as he stared at the snail. Begging for it to speak again. He knew that voice, he would know the way it spoke his name anywhere in the world. It may have been years since he last heard it call out to him other than in his dreams but he knew it.

"Flick?" his voice broke as he sat back down in his chair and pulled himself closer. He pleaded with it to speak again. Say his name one more time to prove his imagination wasn't making it up.

"Sabo," she answered his prays and he felt the tears rush to his eyes. "Thank god." He let his head hang as a tear fell onto his wooden desk. She was there, she was home. "Are you okay?" he asked knowing that it was a stupid question. But he needed to hear her speak again.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She answered his question and he could hear the pain in her voice. They both knew that it was a lie. She was definitely not okay – but she was home now. She will be okay and now that she was back he would be able to see her again, speak to her whenever she needed him.

"Guys can we talk alone?" He whispered into the piece knowing that the rest of the family were still in the room. What he wanted to talk to her about was between them. Even though they were family and they trusted them unconditionally, they were the Wolf pack and that was a bond beyond anything that could ever be replicated.

"We'll be right outside, take your time." Thatch spoke for the first time and he knew it was to Octavia.

"Are you alone?" He questioned wanting to make sure that they were really able to have a private conversation. He needed to say a lot right now and only to his sister.

"Yes," she said.

"God Octavia," He all but pleaded. Every bit of emotion was flooding through him. Every speech he had thought of and ran through his mind over and over again went straight out the window.

"Remember when you first left us, when you found out about the threat of the buster call and you ran off in the middle of the night. You were so afraid that someone would come for you and kill us all in the process. You ran away to try and protect us."

"I remember Sabo," she whispered.

"I guess you need another lesson Flick." He felt his eyes stop watering as he knew he had to lay down the hard love this time. "Remember what we said, we are _family_. You are our _sister_ and there isn't a single person in the world that could come between us. Not even you." He felt himself smile at the last comment. No matter how hard she tries to push them away they will come straight back.

"We left that night against ever order to come find you. We will always come and find you Flick, we will take on whoever dares to touch you and we will destroy them. We fight each other's battles remember. Your enemy is our enemy and our enemy is yours. When you hurt so do we, so when the time comes, we will stand together to face our enemy." He knew that not a single brother or ally or friend would not stand with them when they faced off Blackbeard.

"We will stand as the Whitebeard Wolfpack, with our guardians and friends and family by our side and we will stand as one. You are never alone in this, so whatever dark thoughts come creeping back into that thick headed mind of yours you remember what I said, alright?"

There was a silence on the other end and all he could make out was the small sobs through the speaker. Guilt rushed through him but he knew he had to say it all. He was the oldest brother in the room right now, well on the line, and he was going to make sure that his sister knew where she belonged. That even though she was the most scared she had ever been in her life she didn't have to face that darkness alone.

"Flick?" he questioned getting worried.

"You still want me as a sister?" she hiccupped and he couldn't help but laugh. Out of everything he had just lectured her on, that was the thing that she was worried about the most.

"You and Ace seriously - of course you dumbass. I don't know if you get this yet or not, but there is no going back on that pact we made. We are brothers and sisters for _life_. No take backs." He laughed and let himself fall back against the chair. Her and Ace were more brothers and sisters than anyone could ever imagine. Their minds were the same, protect their family and sacrificing themselves was always the first option in their minds.

"I really missed you Sabo," she admitted.

"I missed you more." He admitted back.

"So how is the revolutionaries?" she questioned and he could hear the lightness in her voice that he had missed so much.

"You would never even imagine how amazing it is Flick – all likeminded people all coming together to fight the same fight. Everyone here was touched by someway by those monsters of the world. And they're all here now to protect the little guys of the world." He ranted about his cause and then it hit him.

"You will never guess who the hell I met up with on my first day here!" he lent forwards and suddenly felt a good piece of news rush to his mind.

"Who?"

"Trai and Tatsumi." He answered and let it hang in the air as the snails eyes grew wide in shock.

"They're alive?" she gasped.

"Yes, they managed to escape just like we did. Tatsumi got injured in the escape but Trai managed to get a small boat off the ship and got them away. They looked for us." Sabo answered feeling the warmth rush over him. "They searched for us for years, destroyed dozens of slaver ships searching for us – that was how the revolutionaries caught onto them. Recruited them right there and them and asked them to keep doing what they were doing but with a support crew." Sabo laughed remembering the stories of the famous guerrilla team that destroyed every slaver vessel in site.

"They looked for us?" Flick asked in just about as much shock as he has when he first discovered that bit of information.

"Yeah they did. Saved lots of people from slavery whilst looking for us too, earned a name as the silent destroyers. Boats would just disappear on the way to Sabaody or be completely destroyed."

"I can't believe it." She gasped a little hint of the sister he could remember shining through.

"Tell me more Sabo," she pleaded and he could hear her moving the transponder and the small sound of her petting Stefan as she made herself comfortable.

"Well…"

 ** _'_** ** _Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith hat everything is going to be alright.'_**

Well that was it, what did you think?

To begin with Sabo was very hard for me to write, and especially the quickness I wanted to progress through his story and up to the main timeline. There will be more of Sabo coming but the main focus will be on Flick and Luffy ;) If you have any thoughts of Sabo's life please throw them at me!

Thanks lovelies xx

 ** _'_** ** _Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith hat everything is going to be alright.'_**


	3. Meet the Strawhats

**_Hello my lovelies! Sorry the long delay but here is the next chapter.. I have written a big chunk so hopefully wont be too long! xx_**

 _"It's okay to be scared. Being scared means you're about to something really brave."_

Octavia couldn't actually believe everything that had happened in such a short time. For so many years she believed that that was going to be her life, on the run forever, constantly looking over her shoulder and never being able to trust anyone again. But with one good old knock to the head by her family gave her the confidence and reassurance that everything may or may not be alright – but no matter what she wouldn't be standing there in the front lines alone. She had her family and her friends beside her the whole time.

She leaned over the edge of her small boat as she waved goodbye to her home and family. The last few weeks were a bumpy ride for all of them. She came back more destroyed than before and they fixed her up - just like they did last time. But that was what it meant to be a family.

She looked down at her open shirt her eyes caught site of the small silver crystal that her mother had given her in her final moments, sitting next to the heart locket her uncle had passed onto her and now there in the middle of both pendants lay a new addition – a silver sphere. Her father had given that to her the night before she left, it was a symbol of their family. It was round and always continuing, you couldn't run from something that was infinite, like her family.

For so long she had let the darkness of that man take complete control over her mind, thoughts and her life. Even when he was on the other side of the world he still had this complete control over her, but all it took were a few weeks with her stubborn family to remind her of who she truly was.

She was a fighter.

She was not going to stay down for another moment longer.

The Moby Dick had carried her as far as it could without causing trouble with the marines. The Moby Dick even appearing in paradise was going to cause a scene amongst the marines, but for it to be spotted heading closer and closer to the grand line was something to be feared. She peered down at her newly designed outfit courtesy of Izo and grinned.

She finally looked and felt like herself again. Her dark red hair sat braided down her head and over her shoulder and sat just below the swell of her chest - curtesy of Izo, however she didn't really understand how it took three hours for the sharpshooter to return her hair back to the normal state. She felt that her fashionable guardian missed her hair more than her.

The new clothing style was made to match her personality, or so she was told, but also to create a sense of danger as people dared to look at her. The dark leather corset that was lined with chain was her last line of defence in case she was to miss any incoming attacks, plus as Izo put it, it was badass.

Her fitted pants hugged her form nicely but also gave her perfect opportunity to strap her braces on her thighs and keep her blades at her reach at all times. Her boots were another creation by Izo and influenced by Lia, the knee high boots were more than just a fashion accessory as it was equipped with another three blades.

She wasn't completely sure, but it seemed like those two were not the best to leave together when creating clothes for her. Every outfit she owned stowed a secret pocket or strap that would hold a blade or two. Those two were either seriously paranoid or geniuses; she was yet to make a final diagnosis.

But what she loved the most was her cloak and hood. It was styled purposely around the very cloak that Luffy had _stolen_ for her back when they were kids. Her arms were free to pull her bow off her back in a moment's notice and fire an attack. It kept her face hidden but didn't restrain her like other cloaks did.

So far she looked as fierce as she had always wanted to look, her striking red hair flowed down in its tight fishtail braid over her shoulder peeking out from under her hood. Her clothes and posture would hopefully deter others from approaching her or trying anything with her, now all she had to do was live up to what her clothing was trying to say.

Taking in a deep breathe she looked down at the wanted poster in her hands. Staring back at her was her little brother's most famous grin, a brother whom was not so little anymore. But then again only Luffy could have a wanted poster with a grin flashing wider than the camera frame would allow.

He would truly be underestimated to the entire world, but once someone faces off her little brother they would see the danger and strength that he truly possesses. But what caught her eye the most was the sum on the wanted poster. Thirty million berries. She shuddered at the thought of what her baby brother did in order to get a bounty that high, and in the East Blue no doubt, but she was sure it was going to be a hell of a story and she couldn't wait to hear it.

She looked up from the wanted poster and out onto the open ocean. She had a plan to meet her brother at his entry into the grand line, she wished to watch as his ship sailed over the mountains she had read all about, she could just imagine the sounds of his cheerful laugh as they sailed over the top, everyone else would not doubly we screaming – but not her brother. She wanted to welcome him back to their ocean, the ocean they first met on, would be where they would meet again.

A sudden chill ripped through her body and her hand instinctively went to her thigh where her daggers lay waiting. Her eyes scanned over the empty ocean and paused in the distance a rolling fog moved towards her. They open ocean that was a second ago empty, was not so empty any more. There sitting in the middle of the suddenly appearing fog was a dark shadow, but what caught her eyes was the movement of the shadows, it was a small boat. Two small flickering lights appeared flanking the boat as it grew closer and closer towards her own small vessel.

Her blood seemed to freeze like ice as the mist rolled in and around her small boat. She instantly regretted not agreeing to let Thatch escort her to her brother. She could feel the presence of another on that boat and she didn't like the way it felt. This person was dangerous, and that was not the only word that was running through her mind in that second.

"Shit," her eyes glanced back over her shoulder and she wondered if she would even outrun this tiny assed boat surrounded by mystery fog, the answer that first came to her mind was no – no she couldn't.

The small vessel slowed until it was just in front of her like some sick and twisted cowboy standoff. There was nowhere for her to escape. Her hand twitched ready to grab her bow at the first chance of an ambush.

"You're not that fast, girl." The man spoke and she felt a rush of power run over her skin and through her body. It felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Her eyes moving rapidly over the man in front of her, his dark cloak with matching hat, was enough to put her own clothing to shame. This was a man who needed no outfit to claim his strength his presence alone was enough. It felt like eternity as her body began to tremble and the cloaked man lifted his head, beneath the rim of his hat she could see a pair of dark sharp eyes staring back at her.

"You're a long ways from home, Octavia." He spoke and she couldn't help but nod once. They both stared at each other as the moment seemed to take a lifetime to pass.

"Have you spoken to Whitebeard?" he questioned her, and she didn't hesitate but answer with a nod. She would do whatever this man asked of her. His aura alone was enough for her hairs to raise on the back of her neck, let alone the piercing eyes that stared at her, almost egging her on to deceive him.

"Have you spoken to your uncle?" he asked again, and she flinched back. A small smirk, if she could even call it a smirk played upon the man's lips and he knew the answer.

"You're -" that was the only syllable that she could pronounce. She knew exactly who the man in front of her was and exactly what his title was. But she hadn't heard of this man in years and she had no idea where his alliances lay now.

"I am." He spoke and she felt her frustration bristle.

"Head my warning child, you are not to go near the man with golden hair." He spoke firmly and she felt her body stiffen and her head slowly nod.

"Goodbye Octavia, I will be watching." He spoke before sitting back down in his small boat and changing direction away from her boat.

"Your uncle will be pleased to know you're well." She blinked rapidly at the man who sailed away from her, without another word or even turning back to look at her. Her heart made itself known again and thumped wildly in her chest. Her hands braced herself against the railing as she gasped for air. Her eyes watched as the dark figure disappeared from her view as though it never happened.

"Oh sweet lord that was fucken scary," she laughed in a state of pure shock as she pressed her head against the cool wooden railing as an awkward laugh bubbled out of her lips.

That was Dracule Mihawk.

The Dracule Mihawk

Hawkeyes.

That was her Uncle's so called rival slash best friend. "Did he even blink?" Her panicked laugh turned into a normal laugh as she processed what he told her. He was still on their side. He was still an ally. Her eyes glanced back over the railing and into the distance to where he disappeared, she knew that people were scared stiff in the mere presence of her father or even her uncle, but Mihawk was on a whole new level. She will have to tell her Uncle that he loses that _flea on site_ competition with his rival.

"No wonder people pass out from just his presences," she laughed, letting her heart rate level out.

Then she groaned thinking about how her Uncle is going to react to his visit. She had spoken to her uncle a few times in the past but never seen him. He begged her to go to him but just like everyone else she refused to put anyone else in danger. She had no control over that power anymore and she was dangerous. She cursed herself for not calling him when she was back on the Moby Dick, she was going to be grounded when he found out she had returned.

But at least now he would know she was alive and safe. But what the hell did he warn her about a man? Was there already a bounty hunter after her head already? Did someone already know what she was doing or who she was meeting up with?

Groaning again she slid down on the deck and let the wind wash away the heat that still flooded her skin. Her palms were still sweaty after that encounter. She pulled her hood over her head, slightly wishing that she had her ugly black hair back to help disguise herself. Sighing she looked down at her thigh and gentle ran her hand over the covered skin, beneath the tight leather of her pants held her father's mark. A symbol of the power that was watching her back. A last line of defence shall anyone dare to challenge her, for if they challenged her they, challenged her father and every single guardian on board that ship.

It will take her two days to reach the grand line.

Two days to see her little brother again.

Luffy was beaming. A wide smile was on his face as he remembered the feeling of complete freedom as they sailed over the grand line. He couldn't believe that the stories were true. That there was actually a river that ran up and not down. He couldn't wait to tell Ace that he was wrong and that Thatch's stories were actually true this time.

He couldn't wait to see what else the world had to offer him and his nakama. His hand gripped onto his hat as the wind threatened to blow it away. He was sitting on his favourite spot on top of Merry's figurehead as he enjoyed the sea breeze whisk over his skin. This was freedom to him.

"Well would you look at that," Sanji called out pointing to the large animal jumping in and out of the water. The crew ran to the side of the ship and stared in awe at the marvellous creature. "You don't see those everyday back in the East Blue."

"It's beautiful," Nami sighed as the sea sprayed over them lightly as it dived back into the water. They watched in anticipation as it swam beneath the ocean to pick up speed before it launched itself back out of the surface. The shadow beneath the water grew larger as it swam closer to the surface, and larger and larger.

"Um guys," Usopp's voice started to panic as the large shadow was twice the size of merry.

"It's huge!"

They all called out at the same time as it flew over their heads, a large splash erupted over them all and they quickly followed the barking orders of their navigator to escape the next tidal wave.

"Nami! Dolphin - Dolphin - Dolphin! Let's go," Luffy chanted, getting excited of the prospects of seeing the next amazing animal. He jumped to his feet and cheered as they change directions towards the next island, little garden. He was so excited to visit a new island, to be able to explore a new place he had never been before, but mostly he was excited to be exploring all these new places with his nakama. His laughter was cut off when and arrow pierced through the air and skimmed his cheek before embedding itself into the mast behind him.

"More assassins!" Nami called out alerting everyone, "Vivi get inside!"

"We're under attack!" Usopp ran around the deck flailing his arms back and forth in sheer panic. Luffy twisted his head unnaturally backwards and looked at the arrow that was wedged into the wood of his ships mast. A frown appeared on his face as he looked at the hole that was now in his precious ship. No one was allowed to hurt his ship. Just as he was about to fling his head back he noticed there on the end of the arrow, carved into the wood was a symbol, a wolf in the centre of a circle. A smile grew on his face as he turned around looking for the attacker.

"Monkey D Luffy," a voice called from the front of the ship that sent a shiver down his spine. There stood a cloaked figure with a bow and arrow in hand. The person's cape of the cloak ruffled behind them as the wind caught onto it.

"Yep, that's me," he ran forwards into the middle of the deck and stared up at the figure, "I'm going to be king of the pirates." He beamed proudly. His heart pounded in his chest over and over again.

"Uh – uh - uh." Octavia reprimanded seeing the rest of the crew stand for action. "Stand down sword-boy; this is between me and your captain." She eyed off the swordsman who flicked his katana out from its hilt.

Octavia stared down at her brother holding back the squeal that was building up inside her. It was him, he was really here. She eyed him up and down and noticed how tall he had become, how handsome he was now. There was barely any traces of the baby fat he used to carry, now those chubby cheeks were morphed into trained muscles. Her brother was as strong as ever.

"Zoro, Sanji leave it to me." Luffy stepped forwards and she was surprised to see that her little brother actually had command over these beef heads. But then again she shouldn't be too surprised really; people just seemed to flock to her youngest of brothers.

Jumping down off the figure head she landed at the opposite end of the deck to her brother. She matched his steps as they grew closer and closer towards each other.

"No powers?" he whispered to only her, and she felt her breath catch in her throat. He instantly knew who she was. Her little brother who she hadn't seen in so many years recognised her even now.

"Hold this would you," she held back at laugh as she threw her bow towards the long nosed boy who fumbled with it and all but broke down in a pile of tears. Reaching over her shoulder she pulled the small duffle bag off her shoulder and threw it to the side.

Looking back over the empty space between her and her brother, they both stood staring at each other for a second before springing into the middle of the deck. It was exactly like old times. They both knew each other like the back of their hands; every punch and kick was dodged and thrown as though they were reading each other's minds. But as far as she knew her little brother had not yet unlocked his haki and neither had she.

She landed a kick to his stomach and watched as he stumbled backwards. A growl erupted from her lips as she glared down at her brother.

"Either you want me to tell the drill sergeant that you stopped training, or you start taking me a little more seriously." She hissed to her brother but saw her threat work a treat. What she wasn't prepared for was the set of attacks he threw at her again and again, faster than he had ever thrown before. A smile formed on her face as she saw how far he had come. He was stronger than before that was for sure.

"Gomu Gomu pistol!" he shouted and her eyes went wide at the use of his powers. At the last second she rolled out of the way, her hand going to her boot where she plucked out two small daggers and launched them at her unsuspecting brother. She heard his cry out and she knew she had won this cheated battle.

"I thought you said no-"she pushed up from the ground and paused when cold steal pressed against her throat.

"Stop right there." A deep voice spoke softly from behind her. Slowly she raised her arms and stared at her brother and tried hard not to laugh. He was pinned against the wall with her two blades holding his vest and him in place. His perfect frown was in place as he stared down at his dangling form.

"I thought your captain told you not to interfere." She snarled not liking the way he immediately broke an order. He growled in her ear and she felt her spine tingle. Her eyes locked onto her brothers and in that moment she knew he had chosen well for his crew mate. Point one for overprotective first mate.

"Lu, a little help?" she called out.

"God dammit Flick, this was my favourite vest." Luffy groaned as he all but ripped himself down off the wall his torn vest left pinned against the wood.

"Flick?" the rest of the crew spoke out in both shock and confusion.

"You know him?" The long nose questioned still quivering from behind her weapon.

"Zoro." Luffy's eyes went wide as he noticed her position. It only took a second before the swordsman withdrew his blade and stepped backwards. But he did not sheath it.

"Luffy, do you know him?" the long nosed brat seemed to gain some courage as he stepped forwards still keeping her weapon between them.

"Yep," Luffy grinned walking towards her. She had to role her eyes at the long nosed comment. Why did all men think that only other men could fight? Lifting her hands up she noticed both her brother's body guards react as she moved.

"Easy fella's," she murmured and picked up her hood and tossed it backwards revealing her face.

"Flick." Luffy spoke softly ignoring the gasps of his crew as he stared at his sister.

"I've missed you Lu," she spoke softly seeing the sadness in her brother's eyes.

"Flick!" he screamed out before launching himself at her. She swore under her breathe before being tackled to the ground by the ball of rubber. Her laugh rang out over his cries as she hugged him to her chest.

"I knew you'd come. I knew you'd come back." He sobbed into her shoulder and she held onto him trying hard not to join him in the crying party.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to find my way back to you," she apologised but she knew that it would never be enough. She owed her family a lot more than a simple apology. She owed a lot of people more than that; justice and revenge being at the very tops of those lists.

"Luffy?" questioned the orange-headed girl who stepped forwards and broke them out of their little reunion. She pressed a kiss into her brother's temple before releasing him and pulling them both up.

"Everyone meet Flick." Luffy grinned wider than she had remembered as he introduced her, "Flick, everyone." She laughed at his special way of making introductions. Her eyes ran over each of his crew members taking special note of the one guard dog still standing.

"Luffy's my brother." She stated quickly and instantly she saw the man relax just a fraction. She really didn't mean to cause such a bad impression in the first moment, but the opportunity was just too good to give up.

"Brother!" everyone gasped and she laughed throwing her arms around his neck.

"Yep, little Lu here is my baby brother." She pinched his cheek and let it snap back.

"Ahh she's an angle that dropped down from the heavens above just to grace us with her beauty." The once burly guard dog now turned into a curly mess of goo. Were peoples leg's supposed to bend that way?

"That's Sanji, he's our chef. Don't worry he's like that with all the pretty girls." The orangehead stepped forwards helping to fill in the missing blanks her brother forgot to fill. Her eyes ran over the chef and she suddenly choked on her own breath.

"Holy shit," she laughed out loud, remembering a single passage she was told not long ago. _'You are not to go near the man with golden hair…'_

"What?" the crew shouted together and quickly sobered up.

"Nothing, just remembered something funny." She covered herself quickly, making a note to tell her brother later.

"I'm Nami, and I'm the navigator." She introduced herself although she kind of already guessed with her wearing the log pose and all.

"Zoro is the guy behind you with the swords, Usopp is the one passing out and this is Princess Vivi." Nami skimmed over the rest of the crew and she quickly gasped looking at the blue headed girl – a princess, a noble.

"Well what do you know," she forced a grin to her lips and blocked out the horrid visions that came with that title Vivi was called. She turned to Luffy and she was about to question him for having a Noble on board but looking at the grin on his face, it seemed that Luffy didn't seem to care.

The next few hours the crew went about explaining everything that happened since they joined Luffy and right up to the moment now where they were heading towards a mystery island called Little Garden.

Her eyes darted from person to person as they each took their turns in talking but she wandered over to the swordsman every so often. His sword was now sheathed but his calculating glare never left hers. He didn't trust her and for that she felt a little more respect fly his way. She didn't trust people who trusted others at the drop of a hat, except for Luffy, he was the ultimate exception.

Sighing she turned fully towards the guard dog and raised her eyebrow to him.

"Alright Guard dog, ask your questions so you can relax just a little," She spoke out and suddenly all the attention was on him.

"How'd you get here, there were no ships around?" He shot out his first question as though it was sitting on his tongue the whole time.

"That giant dolphin sunk my ship just when I saw yours. I knew it was Luffy instantly." She spoke clearly as he stared at her just testing to see if she was lying. "Next?"

"How did you know it was me?" Luffy butted in not letting his grin dissolve.

"There is only one person in this entire world who would make that," she pointed up to the sail on the ship, "their pirate symbol." She laughed as the answer seemed to make everyone nod.

"Why did you attack us? If you really are Luffy's sister, then why the rouse?" Vivi asked almost as spurious as the swordsman did.

"I haven't seen my brother in forever, I was merely testing to see if my brother bothered to keep up with his training over the years. There was – is - no way in hell that I'd let my brother travel unprotected." She explained. "You passed by the way," she grinned at her brother.

"Luffy train?" Nami laughed out.

"Hey, I train." He tried to defend himself.

"What, your mouth? All you do is eat!" Usopp finally added as if he had gathered enough guts to speak again.

She smiled seeing her brother banter back and forth with his nakama. She missed this more than anything in this world, seeing her brother happy and carefree. In that moment she regretted not coming back so soon, she had missed so much already.

"I'm a little worried about what Ms All Sunday said about this island," Vivi spoke out first as they sailed up the small river that ventured closer inland to the island. They had to be sure that they were on the island or as close as possible to make sure that the log pose was able to reset otherwise they would be there forever.

"That looks like an island where only monsters would live," Usopp commented and she was about to comment back on the term 'monster' if it wasn't for the way his knees were shaking against one another. Poor guy didn't have an ounce of courage in him, to a guy like him everything seemed dangerous. She only hoped that his ignorance of the world would stay to a point where a giant beast was classed as a monster of this world.

"It doesn't matter, we need to restock our food supply," Sanji stepped forwards and let his arms rest over the wooden railing as he lit up a cigarette. "We didn't get anything new at the last place and _somebody_ ate our emergency supply stock." He sighed taking in a drawl of the nicotine stick.

Octavia eyed off the thin piece of heaven that screamed out to her. It had been a long time since she got her hands on a pack of smokes and right now it had been too long for both sake and a cigarette.

"Here," Sanji spoke passing over his smoke and she took it without complaints. Taking a long drag she sighed letting it work its magic on her. She went to pass it back and but when it wasn't taken back she glanced a look at the chef. She instantly regretted taking the offering when she saw his glossed over eyes and jelly legs reappear.

"I will treasure this moment for the rest of my life," he rattled on again and she instantly blocked out his love bird speech. She groaned wishing she had taken Mihawk's warning a little more seriously now.

"So this is Little Garden," Luffy appeared next to her and she found herself sliding closer to him so that their shoulders were touching. He grinned back to her and she looked back into his eyes, her little brother was not so little anymore. Give him a few more months and he may just be taller than her.

"I can see how it got its name," she laughed with a roll of her eyes. Someone out there was grinning from ear to ear with the amount of people their little island must have tricked. Her eyes roamed over the overly large size fauna that made the little garden seem like a jungle forest and they feel like ants. There was a single leaf that looked as though it would flatten the entire ship if it was to fall on them.

"Why did I think that with a cute name like Little Garden it was going to be pretty like a botanical garden or something, not this!" Nami sighed, taking a spot beside her brother. Her expression was a complete opposite to Luffy's as they stared out at the luscious island. Noises became louder and scarier as they pulled in closer to the heart of the island. The small bugs that would normally be found around a source of water were larger than her fist and the animals that ate those bugs were twice as large as that.

Luffy looked at her and she found herself matching his grin, this was going to be fun. It had been forever since they had last explored an island together.

"We can just stay here, on board, until the log-pose sets," Nami spoke up relieving two others of their anxieties.

"Sanji, lunchbox!" Luffy screamed out pulling himself to stand on the railing. His hand placed over his hat as he looked out over the island he was eager to explore.

"Make that two, please." Octavia spoke up ignoring the pleas and cries of the anxious navigator, and joined her brother on the ledge. There was no chance in hell she was missing out on this opportunity. Already one day back reunited with her brother and she was already getting to explore with him, just like old times.

"Would you mind if I was to join you?" Vivi stepped up behind them and Luffy instantly pulled the girl up onto the railing beside them. Octavia gave the girl a small smile but it was forced, she had hoped this would be her opportunity to speak to her brother alone, there was so much that she needed to say to him.

"Sanji!" Luffy called out and the chef disappeared into the kitchen.

"Just like old times," Luffy grinned at her and she smiled back.

"Just don't get eaten by an alligator this time okay," she laughed and resisted the urge to ruffle her brother's hair.

"That's happened before?" The blue haired girl hesitantly and all she could do was laugh. Her brother seemed to have a knack for being eaten by oversized creatures.

"Alright let's go!" He beamed instantly wrapping his arms around their waists and jumping off the ship and onto the grassy embankment.

"Luffy!" she called out with a groan. Not two minutes into their so called exploration did she lose her brother. She only looked away for a second and he was gone. A single moment and she lost him; he really hadn't changed at all. And what got to her the most was that Vivi was gone with him. Maybe it was her that they lost and not the other way around.

Groaning she pushed back the large foliage as she climbed over an elephants sized tree trunk. Flinging her legs over the wood she glanced down at the drop before her. This place was beautiful, but it was hard to navigate. She decided to sit there for a moment and catch her breath and think. She pulled her bow off her back and knocked an arrow. Her eyes searched the forest for the need to hunt. She knew they were running low on supplies and she admitted that she didn't hold too much faith in the two guard dogs to actually complete their hunt and not get side-tracked.

A ruffle in the bushes behind her caused her body to still. She dared not move, as another bush moved from the other side of her. Keeping her eyes forward she felt another set of eyes staring back at her. She felt trapped and that she was. Whatever was out there, was circling her into a single spot with no escape.

She was being hunted.

Three, she counted three enemies that were trying to hunt her down. A smirk appeared on her face as the first of the beasts revealed themselves to her and stepped out from the bushes, its small dark reptile like head poke out first, followed by its two front claws; but what her eyes locked onto was the sharp black claws that seemed to twitch in anticipation.

The creature stepped out fully into the open and she didn't dare lose eye contact with it. But that didn't stop her from noticing the other two emerge from around her.

Now.

She flickered from her spot and landed behind the first of the beasts and began to run, she resisted the urge to laugh as the thrill of the hunt got to her. But not just that the adrenaline that rushed through her body as she used her almost dormant power once again. Jumping through the jungle floor she launched her body over fallen logs and gripped into various vines to push herself further forwards. When they got too close for comfort she flickered further into the distance and let the game go on for longer.

She didn't want to admit it out loud, in case she sounded insane, but she was actually having fun with these creatures. These creatures were the perfect training partners for her, save for the almost being eaten part, but they were keeping her on her toes, the way the three beasts worked together was remarkable. She wondered if anyone normal would ever survive being hunted by these packs.

"Shit!" she screamed as a figure appeared out of nowhere. Rolling out of the way she glanced back over her shoulder at the three beasts racing towards her.

"Nami, what the hell are you doing out here, run!" She called out, but the girl didn't move. Her eyes were staring only at the hunters gaining on them. Her sudden game took a turn for the worse and it now became dangerous. She pulled her bow off her back, knocking her first arrow she took her aim. She didn't really want to kill her training buddies, but she couldn't risk the navigator's pretty head, knowing her brother would be upset if he lost someone he already called nakama.

"Run Nami," she ordered again as she shot her first arrow, purposely missing the beast in hopes of scaring it off. The leader of the pack dodged the arrow and all but manoeuvred around the wood sticking out of the ground and kept at its charge.

"God dammit! Nami, move!" she screamed, lunging towards the frozen girl. She was about to shove her out of the incoming attack when she paused. The small moment of hesitation was all it took for a sharp claw to rip into her shoulder and down her back. A muffled scream escaped her lungs and she rolled out of the way while still keeping herself in front of the frozen navigator. Crouching in a lunge on the ground she holstered her bow and pulled out the two knives closest to her. This was now a close range battle, something she was not too happy about.

She was going to kill Luffy when this was over, obviously his navigator was not ready or prepared in the very least for a battle of any kinds. Why she was left alone on a foreign island was beyond her, but from this moment she was either going to train the skinny girls ass, or assign her one of the guard dogs permanently.

The three beasts reformed to face her off as a single unit. The leader lifted its narrow head into the air and barked twice signalling the other two to start to circle the prey, meaning them. Time seemed to stand still as they narrowed in closer and closer towards them, she glanced over her shoulder and a wave of anger flooded through her, the girl still wasn't moving. Her eyes snapped back to the stalking creatures when she tensed.

The creatures froze for a fraction of a second before they each barked to each other in only what she could assume was panic and then they split off in separate directions in a faster pace than before. Something had spooked them, and it wasn't her. Gulping, she scanned the area for any signs of the bigger prey in the area.

"Nami," she tried to call out to the girl but again nothing. Her shoulder was beginning to ache as the adrenaline was slowly dying off. She could feel her own warm blood trickling down her back alerting her to the fact that she was going to need stitches. She turned to make physical contact with the redhead even if it meant slapping her back into reality, when she stopped and locked eyes with the petrified girl.

She wasn't blinking.

She wasn't breathing.

An eerie silence seemed to surround them both and her instincts screamed at her to run. It felt as though the entire forest was screaming at her as the wind died down, the sounds of rustling leaves ceased, no animals were in her range at all.

"Nam-" she went to reach for the girl when she was attacked. Nami's arm vanished from sight and what was in its place was a white slush that stretched towards her. Throwing herself to the side she felt the white weapon attack her back but only grazed at her skin.

"Okay not Nami," she groaned to herself as she dodged another onslaught of whiteness. A patch hit her elbow and stuck to her skin like glue. She reached for her bow and she found her arm unable to straighten. The white substance had forced her arm into the same position.

An explosion when off in the distance and her thoughts and fears went straight to her brother and off of the attack heading straight for her. The last thing she saw was the imposter Nami disappearing into a complete mass of white before she blanked out.

 _'She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails'_

 _ **And thoughts?**_

 _ **Need a little help, how the hell do you get the line breaks in - doesn't seem to have one of those options anymore in my tool bar :( I need them. lol**_

 _ **So how was the reunion, couldn't have the entire crew like her from the get go.. hahha Poor Zoro.**_

 _ **Did we like the little hunt... 'Clever Girl' 10 points for my movie inspiration**_

 _ **Thanks lovelies!**_


	4. WaxWax fruit

_**Hello my beautiful readers! Sorry for long - long delay, what can I say life! Hope you enjoy! And then I've had this wanting to update for a bit and then bamm server errors hahahah. Anyways Enjoy!**_

A loud scream broke through to her from the darkness, she could feel the scratchiness of grass beneath her as her cheek was planted on the ground. The pounding of her head reminded her of the hard hit she had taken before blacking out. Muffled cries and shouts where coming from all directions and she struggled to make out what was going on.

"Look she's awake," a high pitched voice spoke and she felt her heart pound in her chest. They were not the voices of any of her brother's crew members. They were not voices she could recall ever meeting before both good or bad. She tried to keep as still as possible, one to try re-balance her surroundings and the other to hopefully catch these people by surprise. She could hear the crunching of the grass near her as someone was walking closer towards her face. Her eyes flashed open ready to strike-

"No!"

She couldn't see.

She was blinded.

"I can't see." She panicked forgetting about keeping quiet. It was then she realised how vulnerable she was, her hands tied together behind her back her feet gripped together as well. A ferrel growl burst through her lips as she struggled against her restraints. She pushed her face harder into the ground hoping that she'd be able to remove her blind fold. She needed to see.

 _'I've got you now princess,'_ his voice pierced through her mind like lightning.

 _'It's not him – he's not here.' She whispered to herself over and over in her mind._

"Flick!" a female voice broke through to her mind and washed away those awful thoughts. Her head snapped towards the sound of her name searching for the friendly voice. It was Luffy's crew. They were here.

"Let me fucking go," she screamed, thrashing against a set of hands that were suddenly upon her. She tried to keep calm, tried to remember her training but the sudden darkness was throwing all reasoning aside. She wasn't prepared for this, she knew she had trained for years in the darkness but now after everything. It weakened her like never before, if not, it was worse now.

"Not going to happen there, Little Red." The voice mocked her and she felt a sharp kick to the stomach that forced her body to tumble away. Her shoulder gave out a sheer of red hot pain as her skin felt like it ripped apart at the wound.

"Don't call me that you bastard!" she snarled, feeling her uncle's rage somewhere else in the world. That was his name for her and no one else's.

She felt like an animal ready to be slaughtered for dinner. "Now we saw some interesting things in the forest before," the voice laughed and she paused. Instant regret flooded through her as she remembered flickering from tree to tree with her prehistoric playmates. "Our boss would love to meet you." He cackled.

They saw her flicker. They would know instantly who she was. But that meant, they weren't already searching for her. Teach wasn't here. These weren't Teach's men.

"Where is Luffy!" she called out not hearing her brother anywhere. He would instantly know what to do; he would get to her and remove her blindfold. He knew the fear she had of being blinded more than anyone else in this world.

"That runt of a boy," a male voice stepped forwards and she felt a growl rise in her throat. She didn't like the sound of his tone or the way she called her brother a runt, "he didn't put up much of a fight." He laughed and she felt his foot against her cheek.

"Get off of her, you bastard!" Nami's voice called from somewhere in the distance. This was the real Nami, not the fake she was fooled by. She was slightly glad that the navigator was alright, well as far as she could tell she was still in high spirits.

"Bullshit asshole," she cursed him and shook off his foot, "Luffy would never lose to the likes of you." She spat at the ground in front of her, hoping that she hit her mark. She heard a growl and she knew that she hit somewhere on that assholes body.

"You're just as vial as that brat," he yelled and then she felt his foot connect with her ribs followed by an explosion. Her entire stomach felt as though she had just hugged an exploding cannonball. Her coughing fit overtook her breathing ability and she could both feel and taste the blood that coated the inside of her mouth.

"Flick!" the crew screamed out as she held back her own laugh. _Was that all this guy had?_

"When I get outta here you fucker," she warned, spitting a glob of her blood out hoping that she hit at least one of them.

"Put her with the others Mister Three," the man spoke and she felt her body start to get warm. Her head bowed down where she could feel the warmth of something start to move up her body and pulled her into the air. She tried not to panic as she was manhandled off the ground.

"You bastards are going to pay for this." She shouted as she was dropped onto something hard. Her knees buckled forwards and prevented her from face planting onto the surface. Rocking backwards she managed to push herself back to her feet and move into a somewhat awkward defensive stance.

"There we go," the weird voiced man spoke and then suddenly her cloak was ripped from her body, along with the layer of skin that was threaded in amongst her new wound, "can't have that thing blocking my masterpiece." He laughed as he disrobed her.

"Flick, your back!" Nami gasped from somewhere beside her and she ignored the burning feeling as the cloak had torn at her wound.

"Forget about it," she mumbled to the girl next to her, hoping that there were no enemies in hearing distance, "what the hell is going on?" she tried not to sound desperate as she was at a loss for what was happening around her.

"Those four bastards are from Baroque Works, they're the assassins after Vivi." Nami explained and things started to fall into place. They were ambushed, but that didn't answer where her brother was.

"The man who caught us is Mister Three, he has the powers of the Wax-Wax fruit." Another voice spoke and her head turned towards the other female, Vivi was here too.

"Who else is caught?" she asked.

"Me," a gruff annoyed voice spoke and she felt a hint of a smile on her face.

"Guard dog is that you?" she held back the small humour she felt knowing that she wasn't the only strong one fooled into getting captured. It didn't destroy her ego completely, only wounded her. All she got in response was a grunt.

"Enough with the chatter, let's make these candles go faster!" Mister three called out in a sadistic laugh.

"Candles?" Octavia questioned, looking towards the others and then back above her where the wind above was starting to get faster and faster. She groaned imagining exactly what spectacle they had managed to get themselves into this time.

"He's turning us into his own wax statues, it seems that prick has the powers of the wax - wax fruit." Nami gritted her teeth which turned into a round of coughing as the wax began to float down around them. "We're standing on some sick twisted birthday cake."

"Where's my brother?" she asked the crew needing a solid response.

"Vivi?" Nami directed the question to the last person who was seen with her brother.

"We were watching the giant's battle," Vivi spoke and she felt her body almost fall over at the mention of giants, "and then we were attacked by Mr Five and Miss Valentine. I'm sorry Flick," her voice sent shivers down her spine. She was apologising to her as if her brother was gone. She held back her scoff, there was no way her brother was gone, and he was too stubborn to just disappear like that. Plus, she felt that guys kick, he was nothing compared to the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates.

"Luffy's fine." She spoke with absolute confidence; her brother always bounced back. He always came back.

Her mind wandered off and she started to feel her body weaken as every moment passed. She tried over and over again to open her eyes; that's all she needed to save everyone. She needed to be able to see, one flicker and they would be saved from the wax statue.

Her dormant fear was starting to show itself as her body began to tremble. The fear of being completely trapped and helpless was something she never wanted to feel again. She trained so hard to move past the crippling fear her life had installed on her, but she could never get rid of it.

Darkness was her ultimate weakness no matter how hard she trained it was always lingering there in the back of her mind.

 _'Seeing is stupid. Now do as I say and close your eyes...'_ a boyish voice filled her mind ' _and relax, you're always too tense O'.'_ She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at that memory that her mind had conjured up, and she didn't know whether to panic further, or feel relieved. ' _Now take a deep breathe' his voice_ came flooding back. Of course he came back to help her.

 _'You manage to yell at me before I even do something, you can sense more than you can see, so use that.'_ She felt herself nodding like she did back then all those years ago. But this was way different to the times she knew he was stealing the first muffin to a blinded attack!

"Thanks Keito," she whispered to herself.

"I can't move my arms!" Nami screamed out from beside her and she reacted by trying out her own limbs. She could still move, but just barely. Every moment was a moment closer to losing all control over her body and that was not going to happen. Not again.

"We need a plan," she whispered just loud enough for the four of them to hear.

"Hey, can you still move?" Guard dog spoke out and she turned her head towards him.

"Yes," two voices spoke at the same time. Hers and another she had not ever heard of before. Her answer was ignored, but that was not the issue, no, the issue was with that knucklehead's next best plan.

"I will cut off my legs," he spoke almost triumphantly and she felt her head drop. She was surrounded by idiots. She ignored the rest of the crew arguing against the idiot swordsman and went to work trying to free herself. If only Zoro was placed next to her, the swing of his swords could be enough to free her hands and then her eyes, but he was too far and she doubted Nami had the strength to swing hard enough.

With a quick plan in motion she bent down at her knees and pushed her hips forwards letting her bound wrists fall beside her left ankle. Her boots were high and only the bottom half were stuck in the wax, the top half were free. Reaching into the leather bounds she pulled out one of the three secret blades Izo had stored in them. Standing up quickly with the blade in her grip she hoped that her fellow captives distracted the enemies long enough.

Twisting the blade around so that the blade was pointing to the sky she started to saw into the hardened wax surrounding her wrists.

"This is crazy!" Nami was screaming and she couldn't agree more. This was crazy, he was absolutely crazy. She heard the familiar click on his swords being pulled from their sheaths as he was ready to strike.

"Guard dog, calm yourself." She whispered, feeling the first layer of wax break off. She was getting closer by the second.

"There is no time," Zoro grunted and she knew he was going to do it regardless of what she said.

"Flick, what are you doing?" Nami spoke back to her in panic and she moved her hands quicker. She couldn't let that moron cut off his own legs. He would die of blood loss before he tumbled back down to the ground.

"I just need to see." She grumbled breaking through the last layer. Her hands broke apart instantly and she wasted no time in moving onto the wax around her eyes. The first tug against her eyes sent a shooting pain through her face. A muffled scream broke from her lips and she felt her knees grow weak. The wax was in her eye sockets. She tried again and again but the wax was pulling at her eyes.

"Flick! Stop it!" the girl called out from beside her. She knew that she would be shedding tears from the pain by now, but the wax was blocking everything.

"Zoro don't be an idiot!" Nami screeched between the both of them. Both woman surrounded her were screaming out for both Zoro and herself to stop their actions. But they were too far gone now, if neither of them made a move then they were done for. She just hoped that she was quick enough to stop that airhead from cutting off his legs.

"Here it goes." Zoro spoke distracting her from her pain. She waited for his own scream of pain as he tried to dismember himself, but it didn't come from him. It came from down below them. A smile played on her lips as a very familiar built-up scream echoed all around them. She would know that yell from anywhere.

"Luffy," she whispered in unison with her fellow captives.

"Luffy, destroy these guys. Kick their asses for even touching me!" Nami screamed out half between an order and encouragement.

"I will, because they have destroyed the pride of these Giant's battle." Her bother called out and she could just imagine his rage building up in his body and the determined look on his face as he mashed his fist into his palm. These guys were going down.

"Luffy," she whispered trying not to sound desperate for her brother's rescue.

"Flick," his voice travelled towards her and she could feel his stare on her. "You're eyes," his voice whispered harshly, then a wave of dark aura erupted around all of them. If their feet hadn't been glued to the podium there was a good chance that they each would have stumbled backwards.

"What the hell," the three captives gasped as the wave sent a shrilling shock over them.

"Luffy, I'm okay." Octavia whispered, already knowing his anger was getting the better of him.

"Who did this? Who blinded my sister?" his voice was fierce as he spoke.

"Don't forget about us you idiot!" Nami screeched and she found herself starting to get a headache from the screaming navigator.

"You're in trouble too?" his playful voice came rushing back in an instant she actually laughed. From what she had already seen in the short time she was reunited with her brother was that control his navigator seemed to have over the lot of them. Respect was normally given to the captain only, but not in this crew. The Crew radiated with respect for each and every member, just like a crew should be. Just like she grew up with. She smiled thinking back to her family back of the Moby Dick, how proud are they going to be knowing that Luffy is carrying out the same wisdom.

"Yes!" Nami screeched.

"No not really."

"How can you say that Zoro, look at your legs!" Vivi spoke, and she knew then that the idiot actually went through with his plan.

"I cut about half way through I think." Zoro spoke as if it meant nothing, "Can you knock down these candles captain?"

"Sure." Luffy cheered and she felt a little better. She quickly went back to work in trying to free her eyes. Those few seconds of rest caused most of her body to start stiffening. She could only imagine how they must look now half covered in wax and unable to move. Picking up the knife she turned it in her hands until the blade was now facing her face. She had to be careful but slowly she could chip away the wax. All she needed was one eye.

She held back her gasps of pain as she scratched off chunk by chunk of the wax around her right eye. Her movements were getting slower and slower as the wax got thicker. She blocked out all the sounds around her and the battle her brother was raging below her and moved piece by piece.

Suddenly, a piece broke free and she felt a tiny breeze against her eye lid. A light trickle ran over her fingers and she wasn't sure if it was her tears of frustration or blood. Either way it didn't matter she was getting closer and closer.

"Finally," she whispered and she felt a larger chunk chip away. Her eye screamed at her to stop but she had to keep going, she needed one free.

"Mr Three, the girl!"

"No you don't," a voice screamed out as she forced her eye open. A blurred flash off white shone against her vision and then her eye widened as a dark haired man was flying towards her with his white arms poised right at her face.

"FLICK!"

"Don't you touch her!" her brother screamed out and then her vision was gone in an instant. The wax she had chipped away was now replaced by an extremely warm hand.

"I know exactly who you are girlie," the Wax-Wax man spoke and she screamed as a new layer of wax seeped through her eye and down her face. The heat from the wax was burning every nerve she had in her face.

"Flick!" everyone screamed as she fought back the pain.

"Let's speed up the process shall we," Mister Three shouted and she felt her entire body engulfed in the hot wax. She clamped her mouth shut trying to trap in the last bits of air she had before the wax took away her last breath. First they took her vision, then her movement and now her hearing. She was completely trapped.

 _"Just relax O', you're always so tense. Just calm your breathing."_ Keito's voice raced through her mind as her body screamed for more oxygen. Slowly her mind started to drift into nothingness as bit by bit she gave in to the darkness.

Everything was burning.

She was on fire.

Her skin was sizzling at her very fingertips.

"Come on Flick," a voice called for her and she felt a soft pair of lips against her own.

 _'Breathe O,'_

Her body flung to the side and she felt her stomach leave her insides as a stream forced itself straight from her mouth.

"Flick!" Luffy's voice crashed down on her like a tonne of bricks as her breath came rushing back to her.

"Easy Flick, slow breathes." A rational voice interrupted the chaos around her and she felt a soft hand stroking her back. Her hand gripped the soft one and she felt the soft feminine fingers squeeze back. It was the navigator. Another bile rose to the back of her throat and she tried to push it back down. She heaved again and the burning sensation followed quickly after.

"Oh fuck," she heaved again.

"It just the wax, you need to get it all out." Nami soothed her as she tried to get all of that annoying substance out of her body. Her hands came to her mouth and she slowly walked her fingers to her eyes where the largest chunk of wax still stayed.

"Don't, you've already cut your face enough from before. We will get it off safely." Nami grabbed at her hands but she wasn't strong enough to stop her.

"Get it off," her voice was harsh as she desperately tried to claw it off with her fingers, "Get it off!"

"Stop it, you're going to hurt yourself." Nami shouted trying to fight against her. "Luffy!"

"It's okay Flick, I'm here." Luffy's voice raced to her followed by his arms around her. He effortlessly picked her up off the ground and her arms moved to his neck trying to keep her balance. "What do we do?" he asked his crew almost panicked.

"Get it off Lu," she pleaded to her brother.

"I will, I promise." He spoke firmly and she felt his forehead press against hers. He was here; her brother's scent and his familiar arms was enough to calm her fears for the moment.

"Water, we need lots of warm water." Vivi spoke up first and then a loud voice responded.

"The volcanic hot springs should remove the remains of the wax." The voice spoke and suddenly they were moving.

"Hold on Flick," Luffy spoke to her as she buried her face into his chest. He had grown so much, it used to be her and her brothers carrying off little Luffy, and him curling into her chest but now it was the other way around. Her brother was not a little kid anymore.

"I knew you'd come," she whispered to her brother as his calming sent washed over her. The immediate panic of being blinded was suddenly not so much of a burden right now. She trusted her brother more than anything in the world, and she knew that he would stop at nothing to help her see again. As long as he held her hand she knew everything was going to be okay; if only she had that same faith all those months and years ago.

"Luffy, you can't go in there," Zoro's voice called from behind them and she felt Luffy slow his pace.

"Dammit, stupid water." Luffy cursed and she felt him shift his arms with her in it. Her hands gripped to his neck as he handed her off to someone else. "It's just Zoro." Her panic lifted to the next level as another set of arms pulled at her body. Her hand caught onto her brother's in a last desperate attempt to not let go of him. There was a pause in everyone's movements when she felt the swordsman slowly pull her away.

"I know Luffy," Zoro's answered a question she didn't catch.

"Let's get this over with," Zoro grunted as her arm moved to his neck to stabilise herself. It seemed as though the guard dog had never carried someone in his life. She could hear the slushing of the water as Zoro stepped into what she believed was the hot spring. She could feel the heat radiating below her from the steam of the water.

"Hold your breath and I will lower you under-" Zoro started to lower her and she fought against his arms.

"I can do it myself," she grunted.

"Shut up and let me do it. You were unconscious for four minutes, you're still weak." Zoro's voice was harsh but it was spoken without any malice. It was meant to be words of sympathy or compassion.

But for her, those words sent a stabbing pain right into her chest. She was weak; too weak to fight back; too weak to protect herself against wax. "Breathe," Zoro commanded and she took in a deep breath.

The water was hot. Her hands immediately left the swordsman and started to rub at the wax on her eyes. She could feel it slowly start to pick away as she furiously rubbed at the wax, and this time there was no pain involved. As the last of her air started to run out she reluctantly moved her hand away from her eyes and tapped the swordsman's arm. Immediately she was lifted from the water and she took in a few short gasps.

"Again." She ordered and she was placed back under. Three more rounds it took before she was able to open her eyes. As she blinked the water and small fragments of wax from her eyes she peered up at the man who was shouldering her burden.

"Thank you," she sighed in absolute relief as her vision came back to her.

"What the hell are you doing with Flick-Chan you shitty swordsman!" a loud scream pierced the air and suddenly she was dropped by the airhead and landed in the hot spring. Slowly pushing her face up through the water she glared at the still blurry green haired swordsman above her. His eyes flickered down to hers and she swear she saw him grin, but that would be idiotic of him.

"Guard dog," she growled and he actually smirked at her. With a quick swish of her leg she caught the swordsman by surprise and he fell backwards splashing into the water next to her. Slowly his moss coloured hair appeared out of the water followed by his pissed off face.

"Damn witch," he growled shaking out his now wet hair. Just like a shaggy dog she mused to herself.

This time it was her turn to show off the smug expression. She was not one to be messed with on any occasion, hell she had three brothers, and one shitty swordsman was not going to pull one over her.

"Flick!" Luffy called out from behind her, whipping around she swam towards the edge of the hot spring and pulled herself to lean up against the water's edge. Her brother looked panicked for a moment as his eyes ran over her body before his smile finally returned. She hadn't seen that fear in her brother's eyes for quite some time and she sure wasn't going to let it return.

"I'm fine Lu," she reassure him as his rubber arms wrap around her shoulders and his face buried into her neck. Her hands moved to his dark hair and lightly scratched his hair, it was longer than it used to be.

"He got me so mad," Luffy confessed.

"I'm fine now Luffy, I promise." She pulled back and smiled reassuringly to her brother. "I'm not as fragile as I once was either," she winked to him and his signature smile returned followed by his giggle that she was glad he had not grown out of. "Thank you though." She pressed her forehead against his.

"Good." He fell backwards onto his back and let his limbs all stretch out in different directions. She could see by the state of his clothes that he had quite the fight after she was disabled.

"So what happened?" she voiced, moving back into the water and washing off the other bits of candle that was still stuck to her skin. She grimaced looking down at her scorched clothing, she didn't have that many outfits as it was, and now this set was going to need to be thrown out. She was lucky that her corset was so sturdy, that and her now haggard set of pants which now looked like a pair of shorts. She lifted her thigh up slightly so she could see through the slightly murky water, the black tattoo that donned her skin was still covered. She was not quite ready to reveal that extra titbit of information to her brother's crew.

She could feel the burns on her legs and arms as she brushed her wet hands along the surface. She didn't mind too much about her skin, the most important part for her was her face – and that's not because she is self-conscious about her looks or anything – no it was always about her eyes and her vision.

Her mind wandered over to the bickering crew members and couldn't help but smile at their playful spar. It reminded her of her brothers and the constant brawls that would break out up on deck weather it was over the last jug of sake or the harmless pranks Thatch seemed to always be pulling on unsuspecting crew members.

"Are you alright Flick?" she glanced back over her shoulder as Nami waded towards her. She was in less clothing that she had ended up with. But that didn't seem to disappoint the young navigator, actually it seemed as though she flaunted her body and all her assets.

"I'm good, and you?" she asked, eyeing off the small burns that laced her pale skin. She could also see some parts of her hair that seemed a little singed off the bottom. She didn't even want to think what her hair looked like being double the length of Nami's. She gentle ran her fingers through her hair but groaned when they were forced to a stop about two inches down. There was wax threaded all through her hair.

"Here let me," Nami swam forwards and quickly her fingers moved through her own hair expertly. She felt her brother pat her shoulder signalling his moving away, she almost groaned at the thought of being left alone with the navigator, she wasn't very good with making friends, especially the female kinds. She knew how to fight and plan, not girl talk and shopping.

She couldn't honestly believe everything that had happened in the last few hours of being reconnected with her baby brother. A small laugh bubbled to the surface as she took a drink from the sake bottle she had found in a box, at the back of a cupboard and behind several other crates and hidden under a blanket.

She needed this more than ever. She looked out over the darkness that blanketed the ocean and sighed. Luffy had given her space in the unoccupied captain quarters to sleep in, she shouldn't have been surprised that her brother – captain or not – slept with the rest of the male half of the crew. The rest of the crew had gone to bed and Zoro was somewhere on the ship keeping watch as they sat in the middle of the ocean. The anchor was down for few hours for Nami to get some rest before the apparently long journey ahead of them.

She still couldn't believe the drama that her brother managed to always find. There was an actual Noble on board his vessel and she was being hunted by a mysterious group of assassins, which was apparently run by Crocodile, who just happened to be Schichibukai.

Now, that was a sentence she wanted to spill to her guardians, just to see their reactions. Knowing her family, they would all be running around like mother hens, all the while their father, would be throwing back another bottle of sake with a loud laugh bellowing out on deck.

Well, her father sure had one thing right; they were going to be wreaking havoc on the world and it looked like it was going to be one island at a time. Watch out Grand Line, her baby brother was coming. She resisted the urge to pick up her baby transponder snail and call home, but she told herself she would be strong. She didn't need to worry her family after every event that happened. But, maybe she could call Sabo.

An annoyed grunt sounded behind her and she quickly glanced over her shoulder while her spare hand snapped instantly to her dagger on her thigh. Her eyes pinpointed on the shadow that was behind her and what caught her eye first one the small glint of a blade.

A small sigh escaped her lips at the swordsman who was resting against the mast his one eyebrow raised towards her armed hand. They both stared at each other for a moment that seemed to last forever, but in that time she seemed to understand the guard dog more. He was the first mate, he was the one who watched over the whole crew. She could tell by only being around them for the day that he never let his guard down, and for that she respected him even more.

"Sorry," she whispered, both for the instinctual reaction to grab her weapon and for the stolen drink in her hand. She would replace whatever she drank later on, but for now she needed to keep herself in check and this was one of easiest ways she found that helped the most. The guard dog scoffed at her apology already seeing through it.

"You good?" his voice caught her off guard and her hand froze mid drink. She wasn't an expert on team Straw Hat yet, but she could tell that Zoro, asking her that question wasn't in his normal set of behaviour. But none the less, she was grateful.

"Fine," she shrugged, downing the rest of the beautiful burning liquid. That's when her eyes locked onto something that made her choke on her drink.

"Please tell me you at least stitched those up before wrapping them up!" she tilted the stem of the drink towards his two very dark set of badly wrapped bandages around his shins. They looked terrible in the darkness, she hated to think what they would look like in the light.

"They're fine," he huffed taking a swig out of his own drink.

"Bloody idiot." She groaned while pushing herself up and walking past the dumb idiot. She placed her empty bottle in what was now her empty bottles crate and headed into the kitchen. She rummaged through cupboard after cupboard until she found a small medical kit. Ruffling through it she found the things she needed before grabbing two more drinks and heading back out to the deck. Zoro eyed her off as she knelt down in front of his outstretched legs and held out a drink.

"I said it was fine," Zoro grunted trying to move his legs away from her. Sighing she grabbed the leg closest to her and pulled it into her lap.

"Just let me do this, or you're going to bleed out all over my brothers pretty ship." She smirked. Unwrapping the shitty bandages from his leg she almost hurled again at the site.

"Well, at least your cut is clean." She pulled the medical kit closer to her and began removing the things she needed. Zoro kept surprisingly quiet as she got to work, the only sound she heard was a small gasp when she poured the cleaning agent over the wound. "You might wanna drink this one too," she handed over another drink and she watched as he skulled the rest of his and opened the new one.

"Just do it woman, I've had worse." He ordered and she held her hands up in surrender over the wound and shrugged.

"Don't cry," she grinned before taking the small needle and piercing the first bit of skin. His whole body went stiff as she threaded the needle back and forth pulling his skin together again. It was only when she tied off the thread and cut it off that he relaxed.

"One down guard dog," she teased as she gently lifted his leg off her knees and shuffled closer to the other leg.

"Fuck," Zoro groaned and she did sympathise with him a little, but then she remembered exactly how he got the wounds in the first place and those thoughts were instantly gone. When she was finally done with stitching up both the wounds she poured another vial of the cleaning agent over both her handy work before bandaging them up properly.

"Are you some kind of doctor?" Zoro asked as she finished wrapping the last leg.

"No," she laughed, "Have you met my brother?" it was that comment alone that got Zoro to somewhat chuckle. "Lia, our resident doctor back home tried to teach us all how to do basic patch jobs, and well Luffy took one minute of the class and then bailed. So I guess it was left up to me to learn the basics. But I admit it has come in handy on multiple occasions."

"Thanks," Zoro spoke softly and she lifted her eyes to meet his. That moment caught her by surprise, he was genuinely thanking her. No hostility, no joking around just a simple honest thank you.

"Anytime," she pushed herself back to her feet and picked up the remains of the medical bag and headed back towards the kitchen. She glanced over her shoulder for a moment and saw the man finally relax fully against the mast. "Actually, no not anytime. Do that again to yourself and I'll Luffy sew you up." She grinned before turning back and leaving.

She shouldn't have been surprised that when she woke up the next morning she felt a warm heavy weight sitting upon her chest. Her arms had wrapped around her brother at some point during the night and her face was buried in his unruly hair. Gently she ran her nails through the raven locks and scratched at his head just like she used to when they were kids.

"Is breakfast ready yet?" he mumbled against her chest and she couldn't help the small laugh.

"Morning Luffy," she kissed his head and then quickly pulled back as he shot up off her.

"You're here." His eyes grew wider as he sat up facing her. "You're still here." His voice rose slightly and she nodded.

"I'm here Lu," she felt her heart begin to break. She did this. She brought this fear of abandonment back into her little brother. "I'm so sorry Luffy."

"Doesn't matter," he launched himself back into her awaiting arms and she squished him to her chest. "You're back now."

"I won't leave you again. I promise." She vowed and this time she was going to keep the promise even if it killed her. There was no more running away. She was going to train every day until she was strong enough to stand by her family's side and destroy the man who had destroyed so many countless others in the world.

"Breakfast," a call from above echoed through the entire ship and suddenly her brother was gone and the door to her room was open wide. There was nothing that stood between her brother and his stomach. Rolling out of the bed she grabbed her clothes for the day and threw them on, she looked down at her still ruined pants and reminded herself that she would need to restock her wardrobe at the next habited island.

Following the sounds of the crew heading towards the kitchen she entered and froze at the familiar site. Lots of arms and sounds of eating were dominating the entire room.

"My lovely Flick, I beg your forgiveness for these animals and their manors. They were not raised right." Sanji jiggled over towards her with two plates on both of his arms. She was both impressed and disgusted with how he managed to carry that on jelly legs.

"Hey!" Nami cried out at the end of the table. Her knife posed directly towards the blonde chef whose eyes went wide with fear and then returned to their heart shaped.

"I would never dream of putting you in the same category as these baboons Nami-Swan!" Sanji jiggled his way back to the table and all but kicked Zoro in the head and Usopp in the ribs making them spread apart on the table. She took that as a clear enough sign that the space available was now for her.

"Morning everyone, guard dog." She smirked at the grunt of a reply she got from said swordsmen beside her.

"How'd you sleep Flick?" Nami asked, pushing a cup of fresh coffee towards her. She nodded in thanks to the young navigator.

"Perfect actually, had the perfect pillow." She looked over to her brother who grinned widely with a whole leg of meat sticking out form his mouth.

"Good morning everyone," a feminine voice appeared in the kitchen and she looked up and saw Vivi walking in looking as radiant as her title gave her.

Octavia ignored the thousands of lines the chef gave off at the site of another woman, and picked at the breakfast in front of her. She eyed off the last blueberry muffin on the table. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a hand creeping towards her prize. Her dagger was out of its holster and in a flash she stabbed the space right between her brother's thieving fingers and her muffin.

The entire table of people jumped and she turned her head slowly towards her brother's grinning cheeky face. He knew how much she loved fruit muffins and he knew that he'd never pull one over on her. Take her meat, she would smile and push her plate closer for him, but he knew all too well that he shouldn't touch her baked goods.

"Too slow Lu," she grinned picking up the muffin in complete satisfaction. There was an eerie silence as the eyes roamed from her and back to her brother in almost shock.

"Sorry," she mumbled to the others feeling her cheeks heat up. For a slight moment she forgot that she was on a new ship with people who didn't know their behaviour.

"Should have thought of that," Zoro mumbled under his breath before taking a swig out of his mug. She questioned if it was alcohol or not.

"Hey! That's mine!" Usopp shouted causing the silence to disappear in an instant and everyone went back on guard over their food.

"Coffee my dear?" she glanced over her shoulder as Sanji placed a fresh mug in front of her. The smell that radiated off the small piece of heaven was to die for. But from quick experience she knew better than to express this in front of the chef. She gave him a small smile and nod of thanks and hoped that would be enough. Still, Sanji twirled off in a ray of jelly legs and heart eyes.

She sipped at her coffee and watched as the crew finished up with their breakfast and began to move about the cabin collecting their things for the day. Nami had already started handed out orders for preparing to sail right through to Alabasta. If it was any other ship, or any other captain she knew that the navigator would be severely punished for even considering to throw around commands like that, but she knew her brother. His sense of navigation was next to nothing, and besides it showed a lot of faith and loyalty amongst a crew when they listened to each other. She just hoped that they took his commands when things heated up.

"Flick," Luffy's voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she looked to her smiling brother, "Wanna go fishing?" he asked with eager eyes. She laughed and nodded her head.

"I'll train for a bit and then we can fish." She counted and his smile fell.

"I don't wanna train, so we'll play after you finish training then." He pushed out of his chair and disappeared out of the room calling after Usopp to play tag. She just shook her head and finished the last of her coffee.

"Please allow me my dear," Sanji appeared out of nowhere with a tray waiting for her dishes.

"Let me help," she spoke pushing out from her chair. There was a thousand dishes for him to wash especially with her monster brothers' stomach. Why he could never reuse the same plate was beyond her.

"Absolutely not. A beautiful maiden such as yourself shall never lower yourself to such raggedy work." He gently took the cup and plate from her and placed it on his awaiting tray then turned to face Zoro who just got up out of his chair, "you on the other hand. Go wash those dishes moss head." Sanji then flipped one eighty and all but kicked Zoro towards the sink.

"Seriously, I can help. At least let me dry." She bargained but the look from Sanji spoke enough words to try and argue again. She held up her hands in surrender and walked away from the sink full of water.

"Alright then, thank you for breakfast Sanji." She bowed politely and then regretted it instantly. She ran from the kitchen as quick as her feet could take her. She was shocked that she could still move that quickly without the use of her powers.

Stepping out onto the deck of the Going Merry, her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned up against the wooden banister. She could hear her brother and Usopp's laughter coming from down below as they ran around playing something childish, the wind was rushing through her hair as the sails above her pulled tight against the ropes and the hums from Nami as she pruned her beloved trees.

This is what she had missed.

This was living.

For five years she was on the run, constantly looking over her shoulder for the man covered in darkness. Just waiting for the next moment he would strike. The constant bounty hunters or even the marines held nothing against that monster. He was her greatest fear, he was also her greatest goal. She will get strong enough to destroy him.

"You okay?" she congratulated herself for not jumping, or throwing a dagger at her brother's surprise appearance. Now that was something she was going to have to get used to again.

"You scared me," she laughed up at him as he sat crouched down on the wooden railing she was leaning against.

"Sorry," he grinned, completely not sorry at all. He swung his legs over the railing and sat down facing the ocean in front of them. She stepped closer to him and let her head fall onto his shoulder.

"I missed so much," she admitted sadly.

"Yeah," he spoke leaning his head on top of hers, "but you're here now and we're going to have so many new adventures. Just you wait."

Silence fell on the both of them as she processed his words and he just sat there letting her have her moment. There were so many thoughts running through her mind at once she barely knew what to do with one train before the other overtook.

"You're right Lu, thanks." She pressed a kiss into his temple before standing up. "So, tell me more about your crew." She asked and that's all it took for Luffy to open up and start rambling on and on about his new nakama.

To summarise the long one sided conversation she got the complete starter story of Luffy's journey into the grand line. Guard dog was first, apparently he was originally a pirate hunter, and that was his title on his wanted poster, Pirate Hunter Zoro. She wasn't too sure how she felt about that right now, but she would leave that lengthy mental thought path till later. His dream was something that caught her attentions straight away, to be the greatest swordsmen that ever lived. That title alone meant defeating Mihawk in a duel. Now she knew why her uncle's best friend was leaving the grand line the way he did. She had eyed the bandages that were placed upon his chest and wondered what had happened, now she knew.

Next up was technically Nami, but she didn't commit to joining till way later down the track. But what got her second worries for the crew was her talent. Not only was she an excellent navigator but it seemed she made a very talented thief who was obsessed with money and anything shiny.

Third was Usopp, now he was a very interesting character. Someone who wanted to be as brave as his father. Now she knew Yasopp, and he was a brave warrior of the sea, something that Usopp was striving to become, if not the same, better. She could see the goodness in his heart but there was something holding him back. He lied in order to mask his true fear and neglect from this world. But he never gave up.

Then there is Sanji, the blonde man that her uncle's best friend warned her to stay away from. The flirtatious cook, who was absolutely amazing at what he did. She didn't want to admit it but Lyon held nothing against Sanji and that was saying something. To hear that his dream was to find the legendary all blue sea was something new.

She had come across many people in her time and every second pirate strived to be the Pirate's King or the best in their respectful zones, but this was different. He didn't want to be the greatest chef in history, no, he wanted to find a chefs paradise. That might have been the reason why his culinary skills were so great, because he had nothing but passion for what he did.

Now then, there was Princess Vivi. She could see by the way her brother spoke of the blue haired Princess that he wished her to become a part of his crew but she had bigger responsibilities right now to attend too, or so that they were told. She kept her eyes lingering on the girl a little longer whenever she entered the same room as her. She hadn't shown her true colours just yet, but she was waiting for it. All nobles were the same. Every single one of them were only ever out to gain something for themselves. There was only a single exception – and that was Sabo. Not a single person in the world would ever amount to what her brother had done.

"Now, what do you use for training here?" she asked and tried not to groan at her brother's confused face. It was definitely clear now that her brother had not trained a single moment since he left home. It seemed with the details of the stories she had been told so far, that her brother replied on their fights only to gain strength. That was something she was going to change.

"Zoro just trains on the deck." Luffy shrugged and looked over to the small section of deck that seemed to be a miniature weights corner. There were some ridiculous looking weights stacked up on the bar. He couldn't really lift those could he?

"After lunch we'll go fishing," she kissed his temple before pushing off the top deck and landed on the deck below. Now all she needed to do was plan out a training regimen that would work with very limited space and equipment that she had around her. She stared down at the weights and grimaced, weight training was always essential in gaining stamina and core strength. But that was not what she needed to solely work on.

She had a lengthy discussion with her guardians before leaving about a strategic training plan for her and what would be the best methods in improving herself quickly. Marco was not too pleased about hearing the quickly part, but none the less he had his input on several parts of her apparent lacking skills.

Top of her need to improve list was her biggest weakness, darkness. But that was something she wasn't going to be tackling again any time soon. Last time she had Keito to train her through it and it was hard enough back then. She wasn't going to be attempting that again any time soon. She would save that training when she was back with Thatch and the others.

 _So what did you think? More secrets slightly revealed lol_

 _xx_

 _Thanks lovelies ! Hopefully will be able to update soon too - kinda getting my muse of this back!_


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